The Antimorphs Chronicals, The Director's Cut
by Elcolo9
Summary: Freed from his island prison, David Taggart gathers a team to kill the Animorphs and defeat the Yeerks. Evil never dies, it just gets new friends... Updated from original version, May 2000.
1. The Revenge

1 The Antimorph Chronicals  
  
(A Re-Write)  
  
By Elcolo9  
  
  
  
Part One: The Revenge  
  
My name is David Taggart.  
  
Normal name, normal kid right? Wrong. I'm a rat.  
  
Seriously.  
  
I USED to be normal, but no longer. Ever since I moved to this pisshole of a town, My life has been torn apart. My mother and stepfather are infested by aliens from another world. My girlfriend and step brother are dead, and when I tried to get out of a bad situation, I ended up trapped as a rat. Hell is my life.  
  
A year ago, shit was going good. My father, who had died in the Gulf War, had taken his last name of Hunting with him. My mother remarried to an aquaintance of his, Victor Taggart. Victor's son, Brett, and I never got along. He was just a bit taller than me all my life, just a bit ahead of me. When I turned fourteen and got my first real girlfriend, Stephanie, all the bad shit started goin' down. One day, I noticed that Brett didn't pick on me so much. I started spying on him. He had joined some sort of organization called "The Sharing". Like the Boy Scouts, sort of, but with something under the surface. Something sinister.  
  
I didn't know it at the time, but Brett had been infested by a Yeerk. A Yeerk is a parasite from another world. It slithers into your brain and takes over. Anything can be infested. AnyONE. Your mother, father, sister or brother could be infested. The Yeerk moves their mouth, kisses their girlfriend or blinks its eyes. It's more than slavery, because it also reads your mind. All of your secrets are revealed, and the Yeerk can torture you for as long as it pleases.  
  
One day, Stephanie happened in on Brett when he was talking with another alien on a hologram. Brett tried to have her infested, but I wouldn't allow him. I grabbed his gun, an alien weapon called a Dracon Beam, and shot Brett until his body was beyond recognition. But in the process, I also hit Steph. She died right there , in my arms. I ran.  
  
I didn't know quite what I had seen, but the Yeerks staged a car accident, covered it all up.  
  
I was alone.  
  
After the funeral, Victor was transferred out to 'Jersey. A town named "California." Fucked up, but what can you do?  
  
Then one day my life got weirder.  
  
Walking to school, I took a short-cut through an abandoned construction site, and saw it.  
  
A small blue cube. "What the fuck?" were the words that came out of my mouth. I grabbed it, stuffed it in my bad and ran to school.  
  
My fate was sealed.  
  
Long story short, I fell in with those bastard Animorphs. I tried to help them, but they treated me like a burden, keeping me in a smelly, shit- filled barn and expecting to stay there for the rest of my life. My Mother and Victor were infested, I had no home and no one to go to.  
  
Except for Jake, Cassie, Marco, Tobias, and Aximili. And Rachel. How I hated her. She challenged me at every move, while Jake dictated my life like I was a pawn in his game. A chess game where I was completely expendable.  
  
I would never be one of them. Never be accepted. Like Jason Newstead from Metallica. He couldn't fill Cliff's shoes, and in the end, he left the band. I guess I did almost the same thing.  
  
I took matters into my own hands, went rouge, tried to make away with the blue box and disappear.  
  
But those damn Animorphs tricked me. They trapped me as a rat and left me to die on this god-forsaken island, nothing more that a large mass of rocks jutting out of the water. I was in Hell.  
  
I would have revenge.  
  
Then, one day I got my chance.  
  
On that warm day, I had been scampering about the island, feeding on the decomposing bodies of my bretheren, when a massive roar approached me!  
  
I was terrified at first , but soon I realized that the roar was nothing more than the hum of an engine, and that a middle aged man was walking towards the spot where I had been feeding.  
  
"You do not act like the other rats," said the man.  
  
I kept quiet, not really giving a damn about it.  
  
"You aren't running away from me. Almost like you have a mind inside that small skull there."  
  
By now, all the other rats had left us alone in the flat plane in the centre of the rocky "mountains" around us.  
  
"I know you are a human, David Taggart."  
  
Suddenly, I was all ears to him.  
  
With nothing to lose, I spoke for the first time in months.  
  
What's it to you, pig-fucking Yeerk?  
  
He chuckled  
  
"I am Sirex 4891 of the Froshe Nate pool, my rank is Sub-Visser 8. I am chief of science on the pool ship above this planet, and I have come to offer you a deal."  
  
I was stunned by this news. A deal? What could he be talking about?  
  
What do you mean, those Animorphs have trapped me as a rat?  
  
"Animorphs?"  
  
Ah, so you have not yet caught on! The so called "Andalite Bandits" you fight constantly are nothing more than human teenagers! They have been holding you off for …  
  
I trailed off, I didn't know how long it had been since I had last walked on two legs.  
  
"…Almost a year now," Sirex said, "Since our attempt to infest the leaders of the free world's powers."  
  
They are…five humans, teenagers, and one Andalite, not fully trained, given the power to morph by some prince, something like Elshangor, Eltanlor, something like that. I finished.  
  
"Elfangor-Siriniel-Shamtule!" Sirex spat out the words with disgust, hatred, and even a little fear. "The Beast Elfangor, he was executed just after a battle over this world for is crimes against the empire."  
  
Yes, it was him. As you no doubt remember, I, David Taggart, soon discovered the morphing cube. I was going to sell it, but the damned humans, Animorphs as they called themselves, caused a battle. I was forced to join them. Soon, because of their abusive behavior, I tried to get away, but instead, they trapped me here, as a rat.  
  
I was done my little speech. Sirex looked dumbfounded.  
  
"Well, David Taggart, I have been looking for you for some time now, but only today did I notice the thought speech scream coming from this rock. It is more barren than even our homeworld." As he said this, the made a motion on his chest, like a Catholic Preist would do, except in a different way, like a bladed oval, jutting around the edges. I had seen this symbol before- on a Yeerk spaceship, it was the symbol of their empire.  
  
"As I was saying, I am a highly decorated scientist, and I have discovered a cure for the condition that the Andalites call Nothilt. It's actually not very complicated. All that has happened , you see, is that your DNA has been clouded and confused by the morphing technology. It no longer looks like the human DNA you once possessed. However, I believe it to be possible to separate your DNA from the rest, and clone an exact copy of you at the time of your trapping." He looked intently at me, with a small glint in his eyes, like he wanted me to say something.  
  
Clone me? But I wouldn't be me! I would still be a rat! And I doubt that the morphing power would be transferred along with the body, I would lose all my morphs! I was angry, he had gotten my hopes up. And how the hell would I be guaranteed that you wouldn't infest me?  
  
"Many questions for one as small as yourself. Firstly, it is a simple process to transfer ones psyche to another form, you would be you, no questions asked. And did I not say EXACT COPY? That means all your morphs, all your powers. Plus, I believe I can enhance your normal body, its strength, speed, endurance, all can be made greater using Yeerk drugs and vitamins. Finally, a clone does have a drawback: It's brain is too big, but its skull is too small. It can never be infested. Anything that entered the brain would kill it."  
  
Too good to be true, Yeerk. What good would I be to you if I could not be infested?  
  
"We would make you a bounty hunter, a freelance mercenary, free to pursue revenge on those who have wronged you, and those who still pester us…"  
  
It hit me like a brick wall The Animorphs!  
  
"Yes, kill them, and then wander the universe for the rest of your days."  
  
That was it, take it or leave it.  
  
Take it.  
  
Sirex? I agree, lets do it. You had me at 'hello'.  
  
He looked confused.  
  
"I did not say hello."  
  
Its an expression, dumbass. Forget it. Lets make me human again!  
  
He picked me up, placed me on the base of his neck, and began to walk towards his boat.  
  
My ultimate revenge was at hand. Failure was not an option. I would kill them all, or take the Galaxy down with me.  
  
Animorphs beware, David is back, and here to stay. 


	2. The Clone

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part Two-The Clone  
  
It had been three days since Sirex had lifted me from limbo, taking me away from that island that I had called a home for almost a year.  
  
Sirex had taken me back to the pool ship over the planet, invisible to all but the most advanced Andalite scanners. Visser three has been informed of Sirex's project, and had been one of the first to meet with me.  
  
"You can still aquire morphs, David, just can't use them. Do what you need to do," He had told me.  
  
And I did.  
  
I made sure to aquire anything I came in contact with, including Visser three's Andalite body, and the captain of the pool ship, Nodnarb 395. He held a Sstram host, one that I had become fond of, with its Komodo Dragon head, Ram-like horns, scaly skin and and five serpantine, lobster like arms, encircling its body like a gorgon. It moved exceptionally fast, but I am told that since most of them have very strong will, the host resists every day, never tiring, allowing the Yeerk very little rest.  
  
Unfortunetly, this meant that most of them had to be destroyed, and only the most ruthless and cruel Yeerks had the remainder. There were less than 200 000 Sstram left in the galaxy, mostly hosts for sub-vissers and vissers, pool ship captains and a few council members.  
  
While on the ship, in my rat form, I brooded about the Yeerk pool, aquiring new forms.  
  
Hork-Bajir, Gedds, Taxxons, Maks, Nahara, Humans, Tiamat, Leerans, even a new form of controller, very rare, that belonged to a Yeerk known as the Inspector, called a Garatron.  
  
Even Yeerks.  
  
I was amazed at how a lot of these hosts spent the few hours of freedom they had.  
  
They told story's.  
  
I recognized the Human story's: Greek mythology, Bible story's, Aesops fables, even classics like Tolkein and Dickens, Shakespeare and Applegate, Huse and Mitchell.  
  
The few Sstram told story's of a mythological figure named Ssonara, and their century long war with the Gervasid, who had nearly wiped them out in a brutal Genocide. They spoke of beautiful western Pentasera, vast plains and thin forests. It was strangely appealing to me.  
  
And oh, how I was interrogated.  
  
The Yeerks drilled me for hours at a time, asking names, questions, all the facts in my head.  
  
Of course, I knew that if I told them, I would have no use. They would throw me out of the nearest airlock, my revenge would have failed.  
  
Sirex, too, seemed to be hard at work. He took so many blood and tissue samples that I lost count. He looked under a microscope at all hours of the day and night.  
  
Why did he feel such a need to ensure my rebirth as a clone? He was a shady figure, all right. I didn't know weather I trusted him or not. He sure was mysterious.  
  
I tried to ask him about his past. He spoke of everything in a wistful tone, like it was a great defeat. All he said was, "I was Sub- Visser two, on Pentasera, The Gervasid… Sistranus, Ssonora, the laboratory. The Andalite… I was demoted. It was… greatest failure."  
  
We all have something that we don't really like to talk about. This guy sounded like a 'Nam vet, post-traumatic stress syndrome. He was fucked up.  
  
Worse, he was crazy. But then again, so was Dr. Frankenstein.  
  
The empire would provide me with the tools to become a feared intergalactic mercenary. They had a new Blade Ship, that had been damaged by the Andalites over the Mak world, Lummod IV. It wasn't badly damaged, and the Hork-Bajir workers where working feverishly to repair it.  
  
Under my directions, they even added some improvements, such as an extra layer of armour plating, several extra shield generators, extra heavy Dracon cannons, missle tubes, a spare genrator.  
  
This ship would be the most feared vessel in the galaxy. I even christened it. I named it the Anubis, after the Egyptian god of death, the overlord of hell. He lived in the underworld and ate the souls of the damned. It wasn't far from what I had planned for the Animorphs.  
  
In additon, I had the ship well stocked. Its armory was filled to capacity, with all sorts of Yeerk weapons, such as Dracon beams and cannons of all sizes. Chemical grenades, RPG's, Tripod Auto Guns, explosive slugs for human guns, all at my disposal. It even came with the two standard bug fighters, and I obviously had them upgraded as well.  
  
I would be invincible in combat.  
  
I would first aquire the blue box, the Andalite cube that contained the power of morphing, and locate my own team, my own five warriors to battle Jakes. My own opposite animorphs. I would create the Antimorphs. Together, we would execute our enemies, then take the fight to the Yeerks.  
  
But these thoughts were ones that couldn't be spoken in present company.  
  
Over the three days, I was trained by the Yeerk computers, in the basics of military strategy, covert operations, piloting a blade ship and bug fighters, and the maintenance of Yeerk weapons, eve survivalist methods. I had this training computor installed on the Anubis, but why, I never told the burly Hork-Bajir who moved it.  
  
I was awakened early morning in my small "bed" (actually a shoe-box) by Sirex.  
  
What time is it? I asked groggily. Sirex, is that you? What do you want at this time? I glanced over at the wall clock. It was three in the morning.  
  
Sirex was more alive than I had ever seen him, he moved around the room like Eric Cartman on a sugar high. He was almost…giddy.  
  
"It is done, Taggart! The clone, it is grown! I have done it, what even the mighty Andalite have failed to do, I have freed a Nothlit David, do you know what that means? I'll be Visser threes top scientist, I'll be promoted! I could be a Visser, within a year! I could-" he kept going, with his manic ravings at a million miles per hour. I shut him up.  
  
I lept out of my bed, and using my miniscule mouth, bit him on the toe.  
  
With a whimper, he shut up.  
  
Just take me to the clone, Sirex. I have a job to do.  
  
"Yes, of course David. The clone, the transfer must still be completed."  
  
We moved down he near-empty corridors of the pool ship, to the other end that contained Sirex's laboratory complex.  
  
Once we had reached it, I saw my clone.  
  
It was in a fetal position, in a ball in a large tube maybe eight feet tall and six feet wide. It looked exactly like me, or at least, what I could remember.  
  
"David, it is time for the transfer."  
  
He motioned towards a large cubical in the corner, that I could see was connected via a thin cable to my clones head.  
  
I entered the chamber, an Sirex attached the headset to my brow.  
  
This is it, David. Time for re-incarnation. The cycle of life usually goes from boy to man, but for you, it's gonna mean boy-rat-man.  
  
Sirex looked at me for a moment then flicked a large switch on his control panel.  
  
I started to think something, but my thought were cut short by one small fact.  
  
I was dead.  
  
…But not really, for I was in a new world, not at all like the one that had spawned me.  
  
This was a universe of fire and brimstone, not hell, but close enough. I saw millions of flaming shadows, burning like hellfire flying about. Sentient beings I realized. My eyes then fell upon a new creature. Satan's long lost brother. He sat on a burning throne, a mile high. It had two horns like the Sstram, but its face was a blazing skull, that in turn held two hate filled, burning eyes. As I looked down, I noticed that its whole form was that of a burning skeleton, covered in decomposing , translucent flesh, hanging like rags from its bones. As I looked around his throne, I saw thirteen, things. There was no other world for them. They stood like sentinels, around their lords throne, like lieutenants. They were black, pitch black, darker than even the depths of a black whole. On each of them was a single blood red eye. But what really stood out on them was the fact that they seemed to be made of something not physical, but not like the fire creatures either.  
  
They were made out of time.  
  
WHAT IS THIS CREATURE?  
  
It had spoken! To me! I dared not answer it, but the massive voice repeated endlessly, echoing in my head.  
  
AH, THE TAGGART CREATURE. VERY WELL. RETURN TO YOUR UNIVERSE. I SENSE THAT YOU WILL DO MY WORK FOR ME.  
  
Its work? Did this…devil know of the Animorphs?  
  
NOT A DEVIL, MORTAL. I AM THE BRINGER OF HATE, THE DEVOURER OF UNIVERSES, THE DRINKE OR SOULS. SOON I SHALL LEAVE THIS REALM, AND ENTIRE CIVILIZATIONS SHALL BOW TO ME. I AM MEPHISTO, AND ALWAYS KNOW THAT I AM YOUR MASTER.  
  
2 FLASH!  
  
I awoke, in a human form. I needed air! I burst out of the ball I was tucked in, kicking towards the surface of the tank.  
  
My human lungs filled with air. I had never felt such joy at the same time, even though it hurt at first, I kept doing it.  
  
I was HUMAN! And I was ALIVE! FREE from the hell I had suffered in for a year, and the hell that I had just visited.  
  
I burst from the tank, onto the floor of the pool ships laboratory complex. Sirex stood there, looking quite smug with himself.  
  
I also saw my rat body, lying dead in the transmitter, and was amazed that I had been that for over a year.  
  
"Well, try it out. See if you can morph." He said.  
  
I quickly composed myself. Lion I thought.  
  
I felt my nose get longer, fans sprout from my mouth and short furr creeping up my spine.  
  
I could morph.  
  
"Excellent, now, to test your new body's endurance."  
  
Sirex took out a human gun-a slug thrower. It was a simple revolver.  
  
He took it, and aimed it at my chest.  
  
Before I could stop him, he fired.  
  
But I didn't die, in fact, I felt good, fine, the same as before. The bullet hadn't gone through me at all. Just a bit of blood on the surface. I hadn't even felt the pain. This new body outdid the old one, 100 %!  
  
"Excellent, the stimulants we fed the clone are taking effect. This is the fourth clone of you I completed, but as the other three were, shall we say, inferior, I had them terminated."  
  
He continued. "Thus, your actual name is David Taggart, Clone # 4, series 653, model 13, B.H."  
  
"B.H.?" I said, using my human mouth for the first time.  
  
"Bounty Hunter. With that designation, no Yeerk can touch you." He said as he smiled.  
  
It was now time to put my plan into action. I didn't want the Yeerk empire making me their errand runner, their bitch. No way in hell would I work for them. They infested my whole family, caused Steph to be killed.  
  
I had my own agenda.  
  
With super human speed, I grabbed Sirex by the throat, and threw him into the Mental Transfer Chamber, shutting the steel door behind him.  
  
"Goodbye Sirex. I thank you for freeing me from my morph, but I cannot allow you to live. The empire is my enemy just as much as the Animorphs, and I cant have their leading scientist alive to give them information, now can I?"  
  
He looked at m, with a terrified look in his eye.  
  
The look of a man who knows he is about to die.  
  
Sirex had told me after we had arrived on the ship a bit more about mental transfers. If the original body wasn't hooked up to a new body, the memory would be sent into zero space, preserved for all time, eternally self aware.  
  
Sirex was on a one way trip to limbo.  
  
"Bye-bye Sirex. Say hi to Satan when you get to hell."  
  
I pulled the switch.  
  
I saw Sirex's host twitch, jerk around for a moment, then fall limp. His very soul was, at this moment, entering Z-space for all eternity. An eternal life from which he could not die.  
  
I pulled myself away from the control board, and calmly, like a professional, I played it Bogart and walked to my Blade Ship. I was thousands of miles away before they even knew what I had done.  
  
Now for my next objective: Get the Box, by any means necessary… 


	3. The Confrontation

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part Three- The Confrontation  
  
  
  
I was flying my newly aquired Blade Ship, The Anubis, towards the East Coast of the Unite States.  
  
My destination: New Jersey, and the town of California. It was almost noon by the time I landed my ship, cloaked, in the Appalachian mountains.  
  
I would surprise the Animorphs at lunch, state my demands, then withdraw. It would all be nice and public- no morphing, no battles, and unfortunetly for me, no executions.  
  
My battleship was well stocked, but no weapons would be needed. If something went down, I would have teeth and claw to rely on.  
  
I thought about who I would use for my team, the Antimorphs. I would need people I could trust. Steph was the most obvious choice, but she was dead. Maybe my old friend Jason, from Georgia. If he wasn't infested, that is.  
  
It was a different world I saw beneath me- new cars and electronics around the city. More people with cellular telephones, new stores where old ones ad once been.  
  
But I was a survivor. I would adapt. I would be a hunter, stalking my prey. I would then execute them all.  
  
Starting with the bitch. I would target Rachel first. I would make their lives hell, while they lost more and more of the people that they loved, waiting in fear for my killing strike.  
  
Execution Style.  
  
After I landed, I morphed to my flying morph-Golden Eagle.  
  
Now, you've probably never flown before, at least not in a hang-glider or without an airplane. Flying is an amazing experience. I goes beyond words. It's definitely one of the best things about being able to morph.  
  
I had to make a quick stop, get some new clothing. I made it simple. I walked into a store, picked out a pair of jeans, a black t-shirt, some socks and boxer shorts, sunglasses and lastly, a black leather jacket. I looked like the fuckin' Fonz.  
  
I walked out of the store, quickly using the Yeerk technology to assimilate my clothing into my morphing suit. Sirex had managed to open up a sort of Z- Space closet for me, allowing me to store clothing, guns and ammo in Z- space while in morph. It could also be used by others, so my team would always be prepared.  
  
I left the area, found an alley way to morph in, and was soon airborne again.  
  
I quickly approached the school, Roosevelt Memorial High School. It looked totally alien to me. I had only gone there for two days before my life had gone to shit, and the sight of kids milling around, just talking, making out or smoking was a sight that I thought I'd never see again.  
  
Glory, Hallelujah.  
  
Fuckin' A.  
  
I landed in the bushes outside the school, going from Eagle to human in under 20 seconds. It took the Animorphs sometimes over a minute to change shape.  
  
I seemed to have a slight talent in that area.  
  
Yet again, I played it Bogart. I walked into the school like a professional. A hired gun, sent by some drug lord to wipe out the opposition.  
  
God bless the mind of a child.  
  
In the hallways, the kids looked up at me. I could read the expression on their faces.  
  
Fear.  
  
It didn't surprise me. They didn't know who I was, I obviously wasn't a student. I was like some gangster, an outlaw who had a score to settle with someone here.  
  
I entered the cafeteria, scanning the tables for my nemesis. The Animorphs made a point not to sit near each other or seem like friends in school. However, Jake and Marco were friends before they met the alien, so you could find them together like peanut butter and jelly.  
  
And I saw them, sitting on the far side of the cafeteria. Jake saw me too. His jaw dropped, the sandwich that he had been eating spilling out onto his plate. He obviously recognized me.  
  
"Jake, what is it man?" Marco quipped, "You look like you've seen a ghost!"  
  
Jake managed to hold a quivering finger in my direction. He was pale as death.  
  
He shouldn't be that anxious to die.  
  
I moved through the crowed, shoving kids out of my way. They were nothing. Ants, mere molecules in my way.  
  
By now, Marco and Jake both stared at me.  
  
I pulled up a chair to the table where they were eating.  
  
"Hi Jake, long time no see," I said in a happy, friendly tone, "How are you all doing? Lovely weather today isn't it? Oh just to lt you know, I'm here to kill you."  
  
A jolt seemed to go through Jake. He was scared as fuck. I looked at Marco, and noticed the wet spot on his crotch, and the puddle of liquid beneath his chair.  
  
"Awww. Poor baby Marco. Still wetting the bed. Does widdle Marco want his mommy to come clean up? Give him a hug? Poor baby."  
  
The same jolt that went through Jake went through Marco.  
  
"Yeah Marco, I know all about that. You'd be very surprised at what I know."  
  
"I don't get it… we trapped you. You're a rat!" Was all Jake could manage to get out.  
  
"Well, your almost right. I was a rat. But I'm free now. That's right, Jake. Free. A Yeerk scientist cloned my body. I have the full backing of their empire to track you down." I went sarcastic. " Oh, wait. Had the full backing of their empire. You see, that's what happens when you execute their chief scientist. Still, I made away with one of their Blade Ships and a hell of a lot of guns."  
  
Jake was past the fear. He straigtened himself up.  
  
"What do you want, David?"  
  
"Simple Jake, I want the blue box. If you give it to me, I will spare your lives. I'll take it and you will never see me again."  
  
"What the hell do you think this is? Jepordy? You can just pick the prize you want? Forget it, you piece of rat shit."  
  
Marco, of course.  
  
"Marco, Jake, you just don't get it. You see, I will get the box. I will get revenge. I will execute every last one of you. Don't think that you can outsmart me again. If you give me the box, I will make it painless. You have my word."  
  
But NO, Marco just couldn't shut his hole.  
  
"The word of a traitor is worth SHIT, David. Fuck off. We'll take you down! We'll-"  
  
Jake cut him off.  
  
"David, we can't do that. We can't give you the box. You'll have to fight every last one of us to get it. Remember, there is no way we can let you live again David. Think about it."  
  
I wasn't afraid of him, or his hypocritical bullshit.  
  
I laughed.  
  
"No Jake, I'll win. You see, I'm not the David you once knew. No, I'm a new creature. You never defeated me, Jake the Animorph. You retreated, by showing a coward's mercy. I always win. Always. And If I win, then you have to lose."  
  
Finished with my demands, I walked out of the cafeteria, and although I didn't show it, I was smiling inside.  
  
1.1 Always… 


	4. The Hostage

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part 4  
  
The Hostage  
  
Less than an hour after my confrontation with Jake and Marco in the high school cafeteria, I was on the move again. I made it back to my ship without any incidents, although I knew that at that very moment, the Animorphs would be mobilizing, out on full alert. Maybe they would all fake sick and try to get home, just o be prepared.  
  
If I were Rachel, I'd be shitting myself right about now.  
  
Working from the Anubis, I quickly located Rachel's mother, a powerful attorney working out of New York. I hacked into her cell phone account, and listened to her past conversations that she had held.  
  
Apparently, she had a date with a Wall Street tycoon this evening, and had just called Rachel at home to order that she watch her two younger sisters, Sara and Jordon, while she was out.  
  
A plan was forming.  
  
Rachel had hurt me the most, out of all the Animorphs. Jake had ordered me to be his slave, Marco had dragged me into this whole mess, Cassie had treated me like one of her fucking pet animals, Tobias and Aximili had shown no compassion, no pity or remorse over my loss.  
  
But Rachel had trapped me.  
  
Rachel had patronized me, made me inferior in the eyes of the others.  
  
She had ruined my life. She was target number one.  
  
And I knew just how to get her.  
  
During the rest of the day, I wandered downtown New York, bought lunch at a Burger King, and caught a new movie, called "Freddy Got Fingered." If this is what entertainment has been reduced to, then God help us all.  
  
My Blade Ship was docked out in rural New Jersey, and I flew back to it in about three hours, demorphing in a field along the way.  
  
Once on the ship, I guided it over California, New Jersey, and landed in the open construction sight. I took an Uzi from my armory, loaded it with high-powered slugs, and stashed it in my Z-Space compartment, ready for used later. In addition, I stashed away a half dozen chemical grenades, filled with the Yeerk weapon T-57. The T-57 solution was a thick green gas that paralysed anything that breathed it for up to five hours. Andalites that had come into contact with the T-57 couldn't even de-morph, thus making them easy targets for Hork-Bajir.  
  
It was especially useful to me because my David four body had an immunity to all chemical and biological agents. I was superhuman, invulnerable to a barrage of bullets or a mouthful of cyanide.  
  
I morphed to Golden Eagle, and flew towards Rachel's home in the outlying suburbs of the city. I was late, just past eleven, when I landed in a home across the street and demorphed.  
  
The occupants of the home were two teenagers, about Rachel's age. A Girl and her boyfriend, in a romantic tryst. They seemed to be enjoying them selves. Too bad I had to end it.  
  
I demorphed in the empty kitchen after swooping in through the broken window.  
  
By the time I had demorphed and remorphed to Lion, the boy had taken it upon himself to investigate.  
  
He walked through the dark kitchen, as I waited behind the doors for him.  
  
I struck! Pouncing on him and tearing the skin from his back, I felt more alive than I ever had. He was very dead after the second or so swipe, but I kept digging in with my claws until I had torn out his spine.  
  
What it even more amazing, is that not once did he cry out. The entire slaughter had been totally silent.  
  
The girl was upstairs, waiting in the bed for her boyfriend to return.  
  
What she got was me.  
  
I entered her room as a human.  
  
"Who are you? Where's Alan? How did you get in my house?"  
  
I didn't say anything. I just kept moving towards her, a grim messenger of death. Nothing more than a spectre.  
  
By now, the girl was pleading for her life.  
  
"Please, don't hurt me! I don't have any money, take this!"  
  
She took off a ring on her hand. It was a moonstone, very valuable, but I was not in the mood for a robbery.  
  
I backed her into a corner, and using my hand, picked her up from the floor. I started to aquire her DNA pattern.  
  
"Please don't rape me!"  
  
No, I wouldn't do that. She wasn't very good looking. What this Alan guy had seen in her, I don't think anyone will ever know.  
  
Because then I broke her neck.  
  
Quick and painless. It was an easy way to go.  
  
I now had the means by which to enter Rachel's house.  
  
I threw the body aside, onto the bed. I removed her bath robe as I morphed her body. The changes were subtle, as I was morphing within my species. But lets just say that I sympathise with you, if you have ever been castrated.  
  
I stood in morph, naked, in the middle of this girls room. I quickly put on the bath robe and sum slippers, then walked out of the house and across the street to the home of my Arch-Enemy  
  
Standing alone on Rachel's porch, I rang the doorbell and waited for an answer.  
  
Rachel answered the door. You do not know how difficult it was to contain my rage, my anger, my loathing for this bitch. If I had been David, I would have decapitated her right there.  
  
"Hi Rachel. How's it going?" I asked in a perky voice.  
  
"Uh, its going good Vy. I'm just babysitting my sisters. My moms out on a date. I have some friends over, watching a movie. What are you doing?" She replied, seeming distracted.  
  
"Oh it was GROSSE Rachel! I had to, um, 'go', if you know what I mean, and but the septic tank overflowed. I really need to go to the bathroom but if I flush, then my whole yard is going to smell like that guy Marco in the morning." I added with a wink.  
  
Rachel laughed un-easily. "Yeah, Marco sometimes smells like negated rat pee, but he's alright. If you need to use my bath room, that's OK.  
  
I walked into Rachel's house, and soon saw five other people sitting around the TV, watching, "The Empire Strikes Back."  
  
'I do not understand the plot of this movie. Why is the Empire attacking the Rebels? And why are they using Gervasid Behemoth transports and Anicatron Intrepid jump machines?"  
  
"Ax, that's just an AT-AT walker and a Chicken walker. It's only Star Wars, after all." Marco, cracking jokes.  
  
"Um, guys? My neigbor is here. She has to use the bathroom," Rachel said, panicked that I might hear anything.  
  
I looked at the six Animorphs, holed up in Rachel's house like it was a bunker. They thought they were safe.  
  
They were wrong.  
  
I went to the bathroom, and demorphed. When I resumed my human shape, I held the Uzi and the T-57 grenades, slung over my back in a satchel. I quickly took one out, and opened the door.  
  
The Animorphs turned around, looking at me, their eyes full of fear and hatred, but their bodies changing into their battle morphs. Aximili was changing fast, I'd have to act now!  
  
I threw the grenade, it exploded in a thick green mist, covering the room. The Animorphs collapsed, frozen in half human, half animal monstrosities.  
  
They were mine. 


	5. The Execution

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part 5  
  
The Execution  
  
  
  
I had them all right where I wanted them-they were all helpless, thanks to the T-57 solution that had clouded the room. This would be where I would show them that I meant business-that no one fucks with David Taggart.  
  
I walked through the jumble of half human, half animal monstrosities, pleased with my victory.  
  
"Well, well, well. I didn't know that the circus was in town. Quite a freak show we have here."  
  
Rachel, who was mostly Elephant by now, screamed in thought speech, Sara! Jorden! Get out of the house now!  
  
"Oh Rachel, they cant hear you. My chemical bomb has made them all paralysed, you too. In fact, I doubt that you'll be able to move for hours."  
  
  
  
David, if this is some sick way to get the blue box, then you should know that it wont work, you'll have to kill us all.  
  
Tobias, half way to his natural body, of a red-tailed Hawk, looked up at me, slumped over on the couch.  
  
"No, Tobias, I know it wont. I've come here tonight to make a point. You see, Jake and Marco didn't really get what I was trying to say this afternoon, about trying to kill you and all."  
  
You slimy little fuck! Taking hostages now? What are you gonna do, execute us? Marco, with his insane rambling. He was sure getting worked up, what for a half ape Hispanic kid who cant move.  
  
"Indeed I have Marco. You see, one of you won't leave this house. Someone here will die. The rest will live. How they act is up to them."  
  
Cassie spoke for the first time, David, think about what you are doing! You are about to kill innocent hostages, do you want to live out your life with that knowledge?  
  
"Cassie, I have a question for you, how do YOU live your lives, knowing how you destroyed mine, caused my parents to be taken away, caused me to become…this CLONE?! It was YOU who fucked with me, Animorphs, now I'm gonna fuck with you."  
  
I would have expected this, Prince Jake. He is no better than a Yeerk.  
  
The Andalite's words struck hard.  
  
I walked over to him, and shot him in the tail, severing his blade.  
  
ARRGH!!!  
  
David you son of a bitch! You sick, sadistic fucking MONSTER,Rachel said, You twisted little fuck, you'd better kill us all now, because when we can move again, we will hunt you down and kill you!  
  
"No, you little bitch. I wont kill you all. I came here with the intention of killing you, Rachel Berenson, but no, I think I'll kill your boyfriend instead."  
  
I walked over to Tobais. Even though he wasn' human, or even a Hawk, I saw the same look in his eyes that I had seen in Sirex.  
  
He knew that this was the end.  
  
Father, I…  
  
He started to speak, but his voice was cut off by a barrage of bullets from my Uzi, they ripped through his head and tore out his lungs.  
  
NOOOOOO!  
  
I don't know which Animorph said that, mostly because they all shouted one thing or another. Rachel sure would be pissed.  
  
"Oh, boo hoo. Tobias died. Too bad. No one really liked him anyways. He was you're fucking tool, just like I was," I said as I pointed at Jake, "He was just a stooge of the man. Like I was."  
  
One by one, I saw all of the Animorphs struggling to move, and to a degree, the succeeded. They could twitch their arms and legs. The gas was wearing off!  
  
"Now, that we have that un-pleasentness behind us, why don't we talk about giving me what I want, before I have to do something else, even more…drastic."  
  
Fuck you David, we wont talk, you'll have to kill us all! Jake said.  
  
Yeah David, we'd each give our own BLOOD just to stop you. We'd give up anything to see you dead.  
  
Her own blood eh?  
  
"Anything?" I repeated.  
  
Any-FUCKING-thing!  
  
I ran upstairs, and looked ineach of the rooms until I found the one that was used by Jorden. It was the first one I found. It would work the same, either way.  
  
The upstairs floor was coated with green mist, the little girl sleeping in the bed had heard everything that had gone on downstairs, and it had scared the piss out of her.  
  
Literally.  
  
I lifted the kid over my shoulder and carried her downstairs.  
  
"Hey kiddies, guess what I'm going to do now?"  
  
No! You wouldn't! Jake exclaimed.  
  
"Oh, but I WILL. You said it yourself, that you'd give anything to stop me. Well, it's a curse you've brought upon yourself," I stuck my Uzi to the girls head, "You can stop it, though. Tell me where the box is, and I'll leave your sister alone."  
  
David, please! Don't kill Jorden, don't kill my sister! She's only twelve years old. PLEASE! Rachel was panicking now, and I could see tears coming through her hybrid eyes.  
  
"This is your last chance, Animorphs."  
  
It was Aximili who spoke, and maybe for all of them.  
  
Go to Hell ,David.  
  
"I won't, but she will."  
  
I pulled the trigger, and a single round went through the small girl's skull.  
  
For a moment, there was silence.  
  
For a moment, the shock of what I had done was too much, for even these seasoned murderers.  
  
I had killed an innocent child, but they had done the same to me.  
  
Hypocrites.  
  
Suddenly, Rachel resumed morphing! The gas hadn't lasted as long as I had expected!  
  
She was almost fully a Grizzly Bear now, seven feet tall and growing, Winnie the Poo on steroids.  
  
I was like slow motion, but she took a massive swipe at me with one of her claws.  
  
It dug into my cheek, leaving huge slash marks across my face, but I still stood, as tall as ever.  
  
That should have killed him! That would have killed a half dozen Hork- Bajir!  
  
"Yeah, but it cant kill me, NOTHING can kill David Taggart, or haven't you gotten that through your thick skulls yet."  
  
I fired my Uzi, emptying it into Rachel's chest. It slowed her down, but just enough for me to get out of the house as I entered another clip in the sub-machine gun.  
  
I was dashing from the house by now, out the drive way.  
  
But then, I had a very unwelcome sight.  
  
Rachel's mother had returned, she had heard the gunshots and was calling someone on her cell phone in her car.  
  
The police.  
  
Police=Yeerks.  
  
Police=trouble for me.  
  
Police=not enough time to get away.  
  
As I was running, I strafed the car with my gun, emptying my second clip into Naomi Lawrence and her car.  
  
She died quickly, but one bullet had hit the fuselage.  
  
The explosion lit up the sky like an H-Bomb, and threw me thirty feet away.  
  
I had to escape, Marco, Jake and Cassie had fully morphed and were exiting the house as a Tiger, Gorilla and Wolf.  
  
They were fast, I was faster.  
  
I got myself back on my feet, and running down the centre of the road, morphed to Eagle and took off into the night. 


	6. The Surrender

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part 6  
  
The Surrender.  
  
  
  
I escaped from the catastrophe that had become Rachel's home, the fire of her mother's car lighting up the street. The Animorphs had rapidly demorphed and I could see them making their escape as birds of prey.  
  
They didn't make any move to attack me.  
  
I could see Rachel and her sister, Sara, holding each other in the smoke of their former lives. Everything had changed for them now. They had nothing.  
  
Just like me.  
  
The neighbors were making their way outside, to see the carnage. Someone was calling the cops. Soon they'd be crawling all over the place. Rachel would be questioned.  
  
She would make something up, like say it was a robbery gone wrong. The Yeerks wouldn't find any of the T-57. By now it had dissipated into the atmosphere. There was no way that they would know that I was involved. Even the guy that I had killed in the other house, Alan, would look like I had knifed him to death.  
  
The perfect crime.  
  
I made my way back to the ship. The whole trip back took less than an hour. I flew very fast, as to escape detection. Golden Eagles don't usually fly at night.  
  
The next morning, I morphed to another human and bought breakfast in a diner out in Newark. It was bacon, hash browns and eggs, scrambled. As I sat sipping my coffee, I read the paper. My escapade was all over the New York Times, the Washington Post, every major news paper in the country had my story on the front.  
  
About a deranged kid, late teens to early 20's, possibly on some type of drug, who had invaded two homes and massacred four people, blowing up a car and dismembering one of the bodies. Of course, they didn't report Tobias's death. No, the Animorphs must have removed his body from the scene. It also explained how Rachel bravely stood up to the attacker, saving her younger sister's life in the process.  
  
My ass! She had pleaded with me to spare Jorden's life. She wasn't any braver than a seagull. Her father was coming back from Los Angeles, where he had been investigating a heroin-smuggling street gang called the Rampage for ABC news, to look after his daughters. The funeral would be held on Monday, and she would be buried in the family plot.  
  
With any luck, the Animorphs would listen to my one and only demand- the un- conditional surrender of the blue box, the morphing cube. With it, I would create my own team of morphers, with which I would take on the Animorphs head on.  
  
I followed Jake he left the house on Sunday morning. He rode his bike out to Cassies house for their meeting.  
  
I would do something that no one would ever consider. Not even the Animorphs.  
  
I would infest Jake.  
  
Jake was riding fast, obviously angry at everything. He had been doing a lot of crying, his eyes blood shot and his cheeks stained red. He had lost a great friend, a treasured ally. But the had also lost his cousin, and his innocence. I could see that Jake blamed himself for their deaths. He had ordered me trapped in morph, he hadn't listened to my demands. He had told me to fuck off.  
  
And he had told me that the Animorphs would give anything to see me dead.  
  
He was having a breakdown.  
  
He was pedaling out to Cassies farm, through the woods. Maybe he was trying to meet up with Ax. Maybe he had a death wish. Maybe a thousand things! All that mattered was that he was alone-and ripe for the taking.  
  
He was moving along the trail, avoiding the roots and rocks along the forest floor.  
  
Then, like a demon, I struck!  
  
"TSREEEEE!!!"  
  
My Golden Eagle morph swooped down on Jake, through the trees, knocking him off his bicycle.  
  
He wasn't wearing a helmet.  
  
He flew down the path, and ironically, a tree that was bigger than his ego, but he was OK.  
  
"David…you son of a bitch…you little…" He was trying to say more, but he was giving all his effort to morphing to tiger.  
  
I was demorphing to my cloned body.  
  
"No Jake. I'm not going to kill you. I'm just going to use you."  
  
He was injured…too weak to morph. A morph of Jake would do me no good, as I needed to know things. Things that only the Animorphs knew.  
  
I held him down with my hand, as the rest of my body transformed into a Yeerk that had the name of Crona 511, of the Sulp Niar Pool.  
  
Jake was screaming now, although no one could hear him. I was almost totally Yeerk now, except for my hand that held him down, and as I crawled into his ear, the hand dissolved into my tail.  
  
I moved into Jakes skull and soon found his brain. It was amazing! I saw electrical impulses and currents flying all over it, I was excited, like a child with a new toy. I let the Yeerk temporarily take over as I flattened myself out over it, covering it like a living blanket.  
  
Suddenly, I knew all of Jake Berenson's thoughts. I knew all his dreams. I knew all his secrets.  
  
David, no! Think about what your doing! He pleaded to me.  
  
Ah, Jake, I have thought about it. This is my plan, you see, I know that you won't turn the box over to me. I know that the only way to get it is by trickery. Your friends won't suspect a thing.  
  
As he pleaded, begged and threatened me, I climbed onto his bike and rode to the barn.  
  
The other's were all there, except for Rachel. Cassie was sitting on the hay, looking at the floor. Marco was off in the corner, staring off into space, and Ax, in his human morph was looking extremely upset and forlorn, slumped up against one of the empty cages.  
  
"Hi guys. I know how bad everyone feels. We lost one of our own last night, as well as Rachel's sister, but we still have a problem. A problem named David. We have to figure out how to deal with him."  
  
Using Jakes mouth, I said the exact words that he had been preparing to say that day. I took them from his brain like a paragraph of text from a book.  
  
"I'll tell you how we deal with him," Marco began, "We find him, and we cut his little murdering belly out. Then we string him up like a fucking dog!"  
  
Marco was in a rage.  
  
"And Jake, you could have stopped this, you know, you could have ordered us to kill him when we had the chance. We could have followed him at school on Friday, but no! You said 'No, Marco, we'll just play it by ear.' Well guess what Jake? Tobias is DEAD because we played it by ear. So don't think that we can show mercy this time. We have to kill him. No other options."  
  
What a rant.  
  
"I agree with Marco," Cassie spoke up, "We have to stop David. We should try and find out where he is based and smoke him out of his hole."  
  
I turned Jake towards Ax.  
  
"I agree, Prince Jake. We must kill David. Tobias's death must be avenged. Do not let him die in vain."  
  
You see? None of them are willing to bargain with you! Jake said.  
  
No, but as your leader, I can persuade them.  
  
"Guys, I don't like it any more than you do, but it looks like the only way to stop David is to give him what he wants."  
  
The others looked at me dubiously.  
  
I continued, "He can't take us all on at the same time, but he CAN get us when we're all alone. He had Yeerk weapons, and he was willing to kill hostages to make his point. I don't know what he wants the blue box for, but it's a hell of a lot better than all of us being killed."  
  
Marco looked at me with distrust in his eyes.  
  
"How do we know that you're not David in a morph?"  
  
I laughed.  
  
"Ask me anything, that only I would know."  
  
Marco paused for a minute. "OK, what is the name of my Gorilla morph?"  
  
I searched Jakes mind, and remembered back to a few days after they had been given the power to morph, as they looked around the Gardens for combat morphs.  
  
"Like I wouldn't remember that! He's named Big Jim. I even remember that you told him how much you loved his work in King Kong vs. Godzilla!"  
  
Cassie looked at me. "I trust you Jake. I know you'll make the right decision. I just don't want to see anyone else get hurt."  
  
Ax spoke up, "Prince Jake, let us put it to a vote."  
  
And the vote was in my favour, with Myself, Cassie and Ax for, Marco against.  
  
"We cant reason with that creep. He doesn't understand reason," was all he said, as he stalked away.  
  
"Ax, bring me the blue box, last night, as David escaped, he sent me a thought speak message, telling me to leave the blue box in a hole at the far end of the construction site. I'll leave it there before I go home."  
  
"I trust your judgment, Prince Jake."  
  
No, Ax! It's a trap! Jake screamed silently.  
  
He demorphed to his Andalite body, and was back in twenty minutes with the morphing cube.  
  
"Here is the Escafil Device, Prince Jake."  
  
"Thanks, Ax-Man. Hang in there, OK?"  
  
"Yes, Prince Jake."  
  
"Don't call me 'Prince.'"  
  
"Yes, Prince Jake."  
  
After he gave me the morphing cube, I walked back to Jake's bike, and pedaled away  
  
NOOOO! 


	7. Sanders

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part Seven  
  
Sanders  
  
  
  
I left the anguished and pathetic body of Jake Berenson in a ditch along he interstate. I morphed quickly, and using a tree branch, knocked him out and made my way back to the Anubis.  
  
I had the blue box! I had the power to do what only the Andalites could do…make morph capable troops. Not even the Yeerk Empire had this power! I would use it to make my own team, my own…Antimorphs.  
  
I piloted the ship northward, heading towards New York City to begin my search…  
  
THE BRONX…  
  
SMACK! My fathers fist flew at me as I tried to make my way out of the house. It connected, and I felt the blood coming out of my mouth. He had knocked several of my teeth loose, and I spit them out.  
  
This wasn't the first time that I had been punished. My name is Sanders. Just Sanders. I have a first name-Lewis. But everyone just calls me Sanders. I hate my first name.  
  
I live in a rough part of the Bronx, near all the drug dealers and gangsters. I suppose that that's the reason I have such a shitty life. We had always been ok, my family and I. Even though my father cheated on my mom all the time, hung out with underworld people and generally ignored us, my mom made it all worthwhile. She was great. She always looked after me, made sure I was happy. But one day that all changed. The violence hit home.  
  
My mom and dad fought a lot, and sometimes he hit her, sometimes bad enough to make the hospital take her in, even though we didn't have a lot of cash. She had to have the whole side of her face reconstructed. Even still, she looked terrible.  
  
She had had enough, she wanted a divorce. I was glad, I guess. My mother was doing what she had to do. I hated my father, but feared him enough to keep quiet about what happened next.  
  
My dad didn't want that. He wouldn't let her leave. He took a liquor bottle and smashed it over her head, and she passed out. I didn't want to watch as he went to the kitchen and took the knife off the shelf, but he made me. He made me watch as he slit my mother's throat. He made me watch as he killed my mother.  
  
His friends covered it up, they planted the body in an alleyway in Harlem, made it look like a mugging/rape that turned bad. I didn't care. My father was evil, but he scared me. He scared me enough to make me stay quiet for three years. Enough to make me stay still, not run away. Enough to never fight back.  
  
I turned my head as my father's fist landed another blow. His girlfriend, Julia, was sprawled out naked on the couch. I had walked in by accident. I didn't even know that the bitch was here. If I had, I wouldn't have come home from the street tonight. I would have gone to Ranger's house, crashed there. Or Lizards place maybe. Good old Ranger and Lizard. My only two friends. Still, not great friends. You see, they were dealers, and even though I never used drugs, they always tried to get me on the stuff.  
  
Still, they always helped me out in a jam. They always made sure I had a place to crash.  
  
"Get out of here, you stupid little son of a whore!" my father screamed.  
  
"What a dumb kid, Andy," Julia's trademark Brooklyn accent creeping in, "Why do you keep him around?"  
  
My father tried to lay another lick on me, but I was already trying to get out the door. I was dashing across the room.  
  
"Damned if I know. He helps bring in the cash. Don't really give a fuck. He's a quiet little fucker."  
  
He sneered, "He's stupider than is mother was."  
  
Yeah, like my father said, I helped bring in the cash. Still. I wasn't very proud of how I did it. I don't even think you want to know.  
  
I ran out into the cold night air, I only had a t-shirt and jeans on, but it was worth getting out of there. I wasn't going to go back.  
  
Never.  
  
I stalked down the empty streets. I didn't see anyone, not even a car. I walked down the sidewalk, wondering where I would go, how I would eat and what would become of me.  
  
Then, I saw him. The guy, maybe thirty years old, who wore a dark trench coat, and sunglasses.  
  
But it's night time, I thought.  
  
"Hello, Sanders."  
  
I was frightened. Who was this guy? How did he know my name?  
  
He laughed. "You don't need to be afraid, Sanders. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm here to save you."  
  
Save me? Just who the fuck did this guy think he was? God?  
  
"Who are you?" I stammered, "How do you know my name?"  
  
"I know many things about you, Sanders. I know how you hang abound seedy low life's, how your father beats you. How he killed your mother. How you sell yourself on the street so your father can buy beer. I know everything."  
  
"What are you?" I was scared now, really scared. This guy new all about me. He really did know everything.  
  
"I've been watching you for weeks now, Sanders. I like you. I want you to join me. Come with me. I want to offer you a life free from pain, free from fear. Where you will be loved like a brother from all of your peers, where you can avenge yourself a hundred times. I know I can trust you, Sanders."  
  
He was talking crazy, but it sounded good to me.  
  
"That sounds good."  
  
"Then let me change your world…forever."  
  
He started to change, from an adult, to a teen, not a lot older than me.  
  
I was shocked. What the HELL was he?  
  
He let out a small chuckle. "I am a freedom fighter, Sanders. I have the power to change my form, and the power to give others these same abilities. I want you to join me. I could have any one of the kids from these slums, but I chose YOU, Sanders. I can give you the chance to fly, to run, to swim, to fight the forces of evil at every turn. My name is David Taggart, Sanders. Help me, Sanders, but also, help yourself."  
  
I didn't know what to think. He spoke with such passion, such eloquence, that I don't think that I could have walked away.  
  
I needed to know more.  
  
"I will join you, David Taggart. I will join you!" I was wanted , by someone, someone actually needed me! It was the greatest feeling.  
  
I brought my head up, so that I could look into his eyes.  
  
"My life for you."  
  
A smile lit up his face.  
  
"So, how would you like you like to drop in on your father?"  
  
My father… "Just fine."  
  
He walked back down the block to my house. Not my house, not any more.  
  
Without warning, David started running down the middle of the street, towards the door of the townhouse.  
  
As he ran, he changed. Into a Lion.  
  
Just before he reached the house, he was fully the king of the jungle. He charged the door and broke through, the wood splintering around him.  
  
I watched with glee as I heard screams from my father's bedroom. I saw Julia's body thrown onto the glass, shattering it, and being pulled back in.  
  
BAM! BAM! Gunshots! My father was shooting at David!  
  
BAM!  
  
Then, no more gunshots.  
  
A minute later, David walked out of the townhouse, fully human.  
  
And in his hand, he held the head of my father, Andrew Sanders.  
  
"This is what we will do to our enemy's, Sanders. All of them shall suffer dearly."  
  
I laughed, and David joined me.  
  
Our laughter echoed off into the snowy night. 


	8. Aleks

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part Eight  
  
Aleks  
  
  
  
I had the first member of my team, fourteen year old Lewis Sanders. This kid had been through hell, and he looked up at me, with his eyes full of thanks for liberating him from his evil, sadistic father.  
  
The cop's swarmed the place after they heard the gunshots. What they found made them gag. One of the cops puked outside.  
  
They didn't like what they found.  
  
Sanders would be my second in command, my right hand man, in the campaign ahead.  
  
Together, we plotted out course westward, where we would locate the next member of our team.  
  
LOS ANGELAS…  
  
I stepped out of the beat up 1984 Chrysler, and motioned to Coil.  
  
"This is the place. Get out, be quiet. Don't let them know that we're here!"  
  
Coil stepped out of the back seat, his beretta bulging out of his coat like a giant pimple.  
  
"What do we do, man?" Asked Roach, in his raspy voice. He stood just over five feet tall, but he carried the sawed-off like he owned the neighborhood.  
  
"What the fuck do you think we're going to do, Roach?" Slip motioned with his finger, sliding it across his neck, "We're going to show this pig who he's dealing with. No one fucks with the Rampage!"  
  
I smiled. The horse was wearing off. The world wasn't slow.  
  
I been through the desert on a horse with no name, it felt good to be out of the rain.  
  
The four of us were here on the orders of the boss, Rico Muerte, the leader of the biggest street gang in all of L.A.- The Rampage. We had killed or scared off most of the Bloods and Crips months ago. No one opposed us, as we ruled the streets from our head quarters in Compton. At this moment, Muerte was holed up there, like an ancient castle keep, with three or four dozen armed guards and enough explosives to blow a hole in Marlon Brando's ass.  
  
We had a mission.  
  
Search and Destroy.  
  
My name is Aleksander Stantford. Aleks for short. But on the street, my name is 'Blades.' You see, I like knives. I like cutting people that I don't like. I like making the boss's enemies regret their decisions very deeply.  
  
The four of us, Coil, Roach, Slip, and me, were known as the Four Horsemen. The Apocalyptic kind. The boss sent us to do the dirtiest of all the dirty work.  
  
I really don't know how I got into this, the whole gang business. My dad is Serbian, and my mother was English. Dad knocked mom up, we moved here, and I dropped out of school in the ninth grade. I met up with some dealers, and they got me on Heroin. Eventually, I joined up with The Rampage. I was just fourteen when that happened. I was almost seventeen now.  
  
My cohorts and I had been sent to the home of a cop who had decided to testify against one of us for killing his partner. If he lived, then Ramsey was going to fry in the chair. If he died, the Ramsey would be fucking his widow on the pig's grave.  
  
"Here's how it's going to go down," I began, "Coil, Roach, you two enter the house through the back. Me and Slip go in through the front. Get the pig, bring him downstairs. Kill any one else. 'Boss says to make his death very painful."  
  
The boss hadn't actually said that. He didn't care one way or the other. But I did. I was bored. I needed some good entertainment.  
  
"Sure thing, Blades," Said Coil, as he stuffed the garrotting wire that he was named for in his pocket, and loaded a clip in the Russian made DD 44 Dostovei.  
  
"We'll gut the rest like fish!" Added Roach enthusiastically.  
  
I loaded my sub machine gun. It was an Uzi. Good old Uzi. So many memories. The judges pre-teen son, the shop keeper who acted suspicious, the Blood gang leader who stood up to me.  
  
So many jobs.  
  
Slip and I ran up the porch and I kicked in the door. Slip and Roach were already inside, and tearing up the stairs in the back of the house. I heard screaming.  
  
"George! What's happening?" A female voice said.  
  
"I don't know, Hanna, get the kids, stay quiet, I need to look downstairs."  
  
He never got the chance.  
  
BAM! BAM! BAM!  
  
Three gunshots. Three victims.  
  
Good.  
  
"Oh god! They killed them! There are people in our house!" The wife again.  
  
"Stay back! Get down, hide in the closet!" I heard the cocking of th gun.  
  
I looked upstairs, Coil rammed the pig's bedroom door, crashing through, his DD 44 firing off three times.  
  
"Ha ha! I got the bitch! Fuck YES! I nailed her right in the ba-" He was cut off by a gun blast, and his body flying down the upstairs hallway, landing halfway down the stairs.  
  
"You killed them! You killed them all!" The pig's voice rose in a wail. "I'll kill you! You're all DEAD!"  
  
"Fuck that, piggie! Eat THIS!" Roach fired the shotgun off, as I ran up the stairs, jumping Coil's lifeless body.  
  
I reached the top just in time to see the pig pop out from behind the wall, firing twice.  
  
BAM! BAM! Both shots hit, spinning Roach around like a bag.  
  
The pig was aiming for me! I jumped back, firing of a flail of rounds as I fell.  
  
TATATATATATATATATATAT!  
  
I hit the pig, but only in the leg. He wasn't hurt.  
  
"Damn!" He screamed. I heard footsteps. He was making his way down the hall.  
  
I'd have to act fast. I pulled myself up, off the railing, and ran downstairs.  
  
Slip helped me, dragging me back into the den. This job was going to shit!  
  
"Fuck, fuck, fuck, what are we going to do? He killed Coil! He killed Roach! Fuck it Aleks, lets get out!"  
  
The footsteps stopped. The cop was waiting to see if he could wait us out.  
  
"No fucking way! The Rampage doesn't give up! The Rampage doesn't surrender!"  
  
He looked scared as fuck. I didn't blame him. His two closest friends had been killed, but they were my friends too, and we still had a job to do.  
  
"Fuck this, Al, fuck all this. I can't do this any more. I quit. I'm leaving. You can come, but this is it. I'm gone."  
  
CRASH!  
  
Something had broken on the top floor. It didn't matter. I had a pig and a fellow employee to deal with.  
  
He was going to abandon us. He was going to leave the Rampage!  
  
No one leaves the rampage.  
  
Slip was walking away. His walk broke into a run.  
  
"Good bye, old friend."  
  
I rose my Uzi, and shot Slip in the back, his body slumping down against the TV.  
  
The pig had used this distraction to his advantage. He broke into view. It was a clean shot. He wouldn't miss.  
  
I would die.  
  
Suddenly, a miracle! A snake leaped at the pig, dragging him down. It wasn't a normal snake, no. It was a fucki' Python! Shit! It was grabbing the pig, creeping up his body, squeezing the air out of him.  
  
The pig shot at it, but the bullets seemed to have no affect. The Python was holding his whole body now, but the pig had managed to bring his gun up to the snakes head.  
  
SHOOT HIM, ALEKS!  
  
A voice! In my head! How did it know my name?  
  
Aw, fuck it. I wasn't one to argue.  
  
I pulled the trigger, squeezing off one, perfectly aimed round.  
  
I nailed the pig right between the eyes.  
  
Nice shootin', Tex!  
  
The voice again.  
  
"Where the FUCK are you!"  
  
Down here, Aleks. The snake.  
  
"What the hell are you?"  
  
It looked at me.  
  
Your new best friend.  
  
Suddenly, the snake started to get bigger, thicker. It was turning into a human!  
  
Normally I would have fired, but all I could do was back away, the gun slipping from my hand.  
  
Soon, the snake was a kid! About my age, he was short.  
  
Like Roach, I thought.  
  
"Hey, Aleks. How's it going?" He seemed normal, almost non-chalant.  
  
This was normal to him?!  
  
"Shit, man, you saved my life!" I blurted.  
  
He replied, "Yeah, I guess I did, huh?"  
  
"I owe you, man! I owe you big time!" I was so happy to be alive, nothing else mattered, "Anything you want, just name it."  
  
He cocked an eyebrow, "You don't even know me, you just saw me turn from a snake into human, and you want to help me out?"  
  
I was delirious. Maybe the Heroin wasn't totally out of my system after all.  
  
"Yeah, man! That's the way shit works here, on the street. If someone saves your life, you pay them back, no matter what!"  
  
He looked at me dubiously, "You really want to help me?"  
  
"Sure, man, anything."  
  
He walked up to me, putting his hands on my shoulders. This was no dream.  
  
He looked into my eyes.  
  
"Want to go for a ride?" 


	9. Ripper

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part Nine  
  
Ripper  
  
  
  
Aleks had joined our Motley Crew. The leader, the soldier and the protégé.  
  
That's right, protégé. We had known each other for a few weeks, and Sanders and I had become as close as family. He looked up to me, idolized me.  
  
I was his hero. He was almost…like a son to me.  
  
Aleks? Well, Aleks hadn't been the original target of my surveillance. It was his friend, Slip, who I wanted. But Aleks had proved to be the better man, executing Slip for treason to the gang.  
  
Such qualities would be usefull.  
  
Together, we fled L.A. after that messy little home invasion. All the cops found were three dead gang members, the cop, and his family.  
  
We were leaving a trail all around the country. I wonder if the Animorphs saw the news bullitans about the two slaughter's that I had been involved in thus far, and even thought that it would be me.  
  
We needed two or three more troops before we could head into battle, and once again, headed to a large city to find him…  
  
  
  
DALLAS  
  
I plunged the knife back down into the dog, again and again until I was sure it was dead. Yeah, it was dead. It couldn't be re-incarnated by its satanic overlords, free to roam and kill helpless humans again.  
  
Oh, no. This dog was good and dead.  
  
Dear god, I thought, thank you for allowing me to destroy my enemies, satan's demons on earth.  
  
My name is Ripper. I don't know my real name. I woke up in the sewer three years ago, with one hell of a headache. I didn't know anything about me, who my parents were, where I was, even anything about my past.  
  
All I remembered was being trapped in a cage, having my head forced under water, and being laughed at by giant demons. I remembered grabbing a gun and shooting at demons, as they chased me out of the hell that I had been imprisoned in. I remembered collapsing in the sewer, falling asleep.  
  
I just knew that I needed some food, so I climbed out of a man hole and walked out an alley, when my whole life just got weirder.  
  
There was this dog, a Doberman, but it doesn't really matter what kind. They all are in the conspiracy together.  
  
The dog spoke to me. It told me about how he and his allies were trying to enslave humanity. About how they would use our bodies and destroy our minds. About how we would soon be used in their wars and grown like cattle in cages.  
  
I did what any god-loving American would have done: I tore the hell out of that little bitch.  
  
From then on, I was on a holy crusade. My whole existence revolved around finding the evil dogs, and killing them, eating their bodies so that they couldn't be brought back to life .  
  
You see, God wanted me to fight my way out of hell. He wanted me to get back to earth, and to be his champion. He wanted me to kill all the dogs.  
  
Over the next three years, I stole dogs off the street, from back yards, from kennels, even from houses. The paper's called me the Dallas Ripper. I even made the national news. I was an urban legend, a bogey man in the back alleys and shadows of Texas. So, that's what I called myself from then on- Ripper.  
  
Sometimes, the dogs even take human shape, and when that happens, you have to destroy them, too.  
  
I ate the dog. It was a small Airdale Terrier, not very big at all. I stole it from some kid who was walking it. He should have thanked me for saving him from demonic possession, but instead, he ran, squealing for his mommy.  
  
So I ate it. The dog, I mean. Anyways, when I was done, I left the bones in the alleyway. Satan could not resurrect his minions once all the flesh was consumed.  
  
I turned around, standing up quickly, to see the demon! The same, seven foot tall demon who had chased me underground.  
  
He had come for revenge! He would kill me, he had me cornered.  
  
NO! He would not kill me! I had the power of God on my side, and he was just hell spawn.  
  
"Get back, hell spawn!"  
  
I cried out, readying my long combat knives in both hands. They were weapons of the all might God, and they would smite all who dared oppose him.  
  
The demon laughed.  
  
"I have been watching you, Ripper. I like your style. Let us see what you are made of."  
  
He dove at me, his blades flashing around us like a hall of mirrors.  
  
One of them connected, hitting my arm and tearing a huge gash in it.  
  
"ARRRGH!" Blood was spurting everywhere, but I had to keep fighting!  
  
I flew at him, blades out, ready to penetrate this foul manifestation of Lucifer.  
  
"With this blessed blade, I send you to hell!"  
  
My knives sunk into his green flesh, and he howled in pain, pulling away.  
  
He was laughing! My blow's hadn't even fazed him!  
  
"You are worthy, Ripper. You are worthy to join the ranks of the greatest legion of hero's on the planet."  
  
I was confused- how could he be a hero? He was a demon!  
  
He backed up further.  
  
"If you value your life, you will not strike me."  
  
Even more confusing, I thought.  
  
Without warning, he began to shape shift! He was changing his physical form! Showing his demonic powers in public wasn't something I saw them do every day.  
  
But he did not turn into an even larger demon, but into a young boy, around my age.  
  
Not that I knew my age, that is.  
  
"Who…who are you?" I stammered, "Are you in league with the demons?"  
  
He chuckled, "No. No demons. I am a member of a powerful team of chosen ones. Those chosen to fight the dogs. God chose us, Ripper. He also gave us the power to change our forms, the power to morph. He has even given us advanced technology, alien technology."  
  
Aliens? I didn't know anything about aliens. All I knew about were demons and dogs.  
  
"I do not understand."  
  
"They are not truly demons, Ripper, but aliens. Aliens with the power to assume many forms. I was tricked into joining the infidel aliens, but I managed to escape, stealing one of their space ships in the process. Now, I am looking for members to form a fighting team to kill them all! All the dogs, aliens and humans who follow them must be killed, in the name of god!" He made quite a speech.  
  
"Then why did you take the form of a demon?" Or was it an alien? Who could be sure anymore? Everything that I thought I knew was changing.  
  
"I had to be sure that I could trust you. I need to see if you could fight."  
  
"Damn straight I can fight! I've been fighting for three years!"  
  
He looked at me, "I know, Ripper, and you fought well. Buy I can give you the power to fight better. I can give you powerful weapons, including the most powerful of all. The power to morph."  
  
I was caught back. An hour ago, I was doing my job, as God's servant on earth, but now, this kid wanted me to change shape and kill aliens? Fuck, yeah, I'd help him!  
  
"If it helps to kill dogs, then I will help you."  
  
"Good!" His voice lit up, "Come with me." He began to walk away, but I stood still.  
  
"What did you say your name was?"  
  
He turned around and looked into my eyes with a gaze that filled me with a new meaning, a new purpoise.  
  
"My name is Taggart. David Taggart." 


	10. LaRouche

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part Ten  
  
LaRouche  
  
  
  
Ripper joined us instantly, without hesitation. He and Aleks got along well, as both of them had the same homicidal tendencies. In addition, both of them enjoyed the use of knives. Ripper had insisted on bringing along his two long combat knives, that were like jagged macheties. He thought that they were blessed, and he wouldn't leave them behind. I agreed, playing along with my charade, I would soon teach him how to make his body into a huge knife.  
  
We headed out in the Anubis, flying over America's heartland.  
  
CLEAVELAND, OHIO  
  
I was lonely.  
  
Again.  
  
Not much of a change today, I thought, nothing to do, no one to talk to.  
  
My name is Marc LaRouche. Weird name for an American kid, eh? Well, I have a good reason. I'm not from America, originally. No, I'm from France. I was born in a quiet village along the river Somme. Soon after, my dad got a job in America, and we moved here.  
  
Within five years, he had make a killing in real estate, and we had moved into this huge house in Cleaveland. It's a nice place, I suppose, but its hard to enjoy it all when you have no friends and your parents are never around.  
  
My parents love me, I suppose. They try to show me all the time, like with big, expensive presents, or by sending me to a private school. But if I were to vanish tomorrow, I doubt that they would notice that I was gone.  
  
That's how bust their lives are.  
  
My dad now helps to manage a huge energy company, and it's main offices are out in California. So he gets up everyday at four, dresses, drives to the nearby airport, and flies out to San Francisco. I'm lucky if he makes it home by ten, at the earliest. He just does it so that he wont have to give up this huge house, but it's just a sham. It's not like he's ever around, anyways. I just don't think he wants to see me.  
  
My mother? Well, my mother is a different story. My mom fusses over me all the time, when she's around. She works for Americorps, as their Ohio manager out of Dayton. So she's driving around a lot, never here, always there.  
  
Ah, to hell with them both. I was doing just fine, raising myself. The servants and maids never really paid me much attention. It's always like "time to feed the marc," or "get out of your room, we just cleaned it and you'll just muck it up again. No! don't sit in the den, we just cleaned that too! Go to a friend's house!"  
  
Yeah, so they treated me like a piece of furnature, or, at times, a dog. Keep him outside, feed him three times a day, and he'll be happy.  
  
Only I wasn't happy. This life sucks.  
  
Now, at school, I do ok. Not great, but not terrible either. I wouldn't be Oxford educated like my father, but who wants to end up like him? After all, a man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man, can he?  
  
School wouldn't be so bad if the other kids didn't make fun of me. All day, the poke fun at my loneliness, my name, or my gloomy, introvert demenor.  
  
So I didn't like talking to people on the phone for hours at a time. Who cares? Reading a good book is better.  
  
Anyways, my first name, Marc, is what I dislike. It's a wimpy name, you know? I don't feel that it fits me. Only my family calls me Marc. Everyone else just calls me LaRouche. It's better that way. Trust me.  
  
Only one other person, outside the family, called me Marc. Her name was Cassie Verenda.  
  
  
  
Originally from New Jersey, She was here on an exchange program, and she boarded with us. That was about two years ago, and she was here for over three months. We really bonded, if you know what I mean. She was great, and we did all kinds of stuff together, like hiking, swimming, watching movies. We even got real…close.  
  
In all honesty, I think that I loved her.  
  
I was only thirteen at the time. So was she. We didn't have the commitment to carry on a real relationship, over long distance.  
  
But not a day, nay, an hour goes by, that I don't think about Cassie. I ponder every day we spent together. I always wonder what she is doing right now, If she has a boyfriend, what she's taking in school, if her life is going good.  
  
I have almost twenty scrapbooks of Cassie pictures. Sometimes, I spend hours just looking at them. Over and over, memorizing every curve on her face, every arc, every little feature, no matter how minute.  
  
She was so beautiful. If only she was here, then maybe my life would have purpose, meaning. A little bit of significance.  
  
But no, I was nothing jow. Just haunted by the past and lonely every waking hour.  
  
So on this particular day, I was, again, alone. No one to talk to, and no one to care.  
  
Great.  
  
I wandered around the house, aimlessly alternating between watching TV and playing my new X-box.  
  
I had everything that a kid would ever want, but I still hated my life. I hated the thought of waking up in the morning. It was one long, endless, boring cycle.  
  
Eventually, I decided to get some fresh air. I strapped on my shoes, and walked out the front door.  
  
It was cloudy, very grey and overcast in the sky. There was no wind, no sound of cars passing by.  
  
But that part made sense. See, my families property was so huge, so massive, that you could get lost in our own personal forest very easily. It was over eight hundred acres in size. Pretty huge.  
  
I stalked aimlessly about the grounds, occasionally breaking into a run and then slowing down when I ran out of breath. I'm pretty fast. I used to be on the school track team, but I had to drop out when I couldn't get to the meets on my own.  
  
Yet another brick in the wall, I thought to myself.  
  
I was just about ready to pack it in, when I a little kid, maybe seven or eight years old, running through the field towards me.  
  
"Hey!" I shouted, "How did you get in here? There isn't a hole in the fence, is there? Are you lost?"  
  
The kid didn't answer my barrage of questions, he only kept running towards me.  
  
In a moment, he stood right in front of me, looking at me with a gaze that seemed beyond his years.  
  
"Who are you? What's your name?" I said, as if I was talking to a newborn baby.  
  
Sue me, I'm not great at conversation.  
  
"I am the one who is going to totally rock your world, LaRouche."  
  
I was shocked at how adult this kid sounded. Then again, kids are growing up faster and faster these days.  
  
"Oh yeah? Why do you say that?" I responded, playing along with this kid's game.  
  
"I've seen how your parents ignore you, how your father would rather be across the whole country rather than with his own son. I have seen how your mother goes to work every day, far from home. Oh, I mean she work's on her co-workers. You don't really think that the drive takes her that long do you? You must be pretty naïve to think that she wouldn't start to screw around on your dad behind his back," He said.  
  
Just who did this kid think he was? How did he know all this stuff anyways?  
  
"Listen kid," I began harshly, "but you can't just come in here and say that stuff. This is private property, you know."  
  
He kept going, unfazed, " I've even seen how your teachers patronize you and lie to you at every opportunity, out of fear of your father's influence. They doctor your grades, you know, just to make him happy. Bu then again, it's not like you father has ever even seen a report card, anyway, so what does it matter?"  
  
I had had about enough, and I was about to escort him off of my property, when he began to back up.  
  
And change.  
  
He turned from a young boy, pre-teen, to a teenager a bit older than I.  
  
I was in shock. The next thing I knew, I blacked out.  
  
The last word's I heard were, "Aleks? Sanders? Bring the Anubis down. We just found number five…" 


	11. Skorre

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part Eleven  
  
Skorre  
  
  
  
When LaRouche came to, he was ecstatic to join us. It wasn't like he had a choice, really. If we let him go, he might become infested and give us away to the Yeerks.  
  
And we can't have that, can we?  
  
LaRouche would also be easy to control, like Sanders. Aleks and Ripper? Blind fools. Alek's was both dangerous and unpredictable, and Ripper needed a tetanus shot. I swear, the kid was rabid.  
  
Something else I learned from Marc Larouche, was that he desperately wanted to feel part of something. He never had any friends, and he needed to feel like we were his family. Already, he was bonding with Sanders.  
  
It was a few days after we took LaRouche, that we decided to plot our next course of action.  
  
I entered the bridge, to see Sanders at the helm. Piloting a Blade Ship isn't much different that a huge boat. It has one central control stick that even a two year old could use. At the moment, I believe that we were somewhere over the Yukon Terretories, biding our time.  
  
"We need one more," I said, looking at my team.  
  
"Why do we need one more?" Asked LaRouche.  
  
"Yeah, why? Let's go shred us some Animorph skins!" Aleks jeered.  
  
Ripper stopped salivating long enough to add, "Let's tear the little dogs a new one, boss! Let's gut 'em!"  
  
Sanders left the wheel on auto pilot, "I will follow whatever your decision, David."  
  
"One more…that's all we need. The Animorphs fight with an Andalite, so maybe we should get an alien of our own…"  
  
  
  
HORK-BAJIR VALLEY, SIXTY MILES OUTSIDE OF RED BANK, NEW JERSEY, IN THE APPALACIAN MOUNTAINS…  
  
  
  
"Het gaffash nur! Jut nurfashe kimlik!"  
  
I screamed at the incompetant elders. Why would they not agree with me? Could they not see how powerful our forces are?  
  
"Why do you make us sit here, day after day, mindlessly cutting bark and waiting for the Bug Fighter's to swoop out of the sky and blast us to oblivion?"  
  
Of course, the elder's could not understand the word 'Bug Fighter' or 'oblivion'.  
  
They were not Seers.  
  
But I am.  
  
My name is Skorre Fett, and I am a Hork-Bajir. I am six years old, and my blades have just finished growing in. I was nearly an adult Hork-Bajr Warrior.  
  
Like most of my kind, I stand over seven feet tall and look like a giant reptile. I have blades all over my body, and they are quite good for cutting bark, but they are also good for something else.  
  
Fighting.  
  
But I am also different from my fellow Hork-Bajir. Yes, I was quite different. Most of us are just dumb brutes, but two of us, Toby Hamee and I, are much smarter, extremely intelligent. Although Toby is much smarter than I, I can out smart many of my fellow tree-dwellers. Toby is an insulting know it all. All she does is insult me, make me look bad at every turn.  
  
I loathed her.  
  
But I also loved my species, which is part of the reason that I was yelling at the elder council.  
  
I was very young when my parent's abandoned me to try and escape the Yeerk pool, but I remember it so clearly. The Andalite Bandits, that we all know as humans, had attacked us for the first time. Many Hork-Bajir and humans were fleeing the cages that had been opened by a creature called a Gorilla. My parent's were among them. I was young and week, and in a separate cage.  
  
I could not escape. I watched as Visser Three morphed a giant creature and destroyed my family in a ball of fire.  
  
I was orphaned from then on, until I was rescued from the pool by Jara Hamee and his band of free Hork-Bajir. I knew I was smarter than they were. I helped to co-ordinate many attacks and rescue missions on the pool, mostly successful, although Toby Hamee took most of the credit.  
  
My species was so blind. All they knew how to do was breathe, climb and eat bark. They could not see the tactical advantage we had.  
  
Sheer numbers, and will power. Over two thousand Hork-Bajir storming the Yeerk pool? Hopeless.  
  
Two thousand Hork-Bajir storming the Yeerk pool with Yeerk Dracon beams and chemical weapons, supported by the nefarious 'Andalite Bandits'? A sure victory.  
  
I knew that we should stop freeing young and weak Hork-Bajir and concentrate on raiding the armoury's around the edge of the pool. We could become a true army, and destroy the Yeerk forces on the ground.  
  
Victory on Earth.  
  
"Young one does not see clearly," said Wase Mascee, the old, weak elder who had been rescue from the pool months ago.  
  
"Yes. Not clearly," agreed Jara Hamee, the greatest warrior here. Of all of them, I would have thought that he would support me.  
  
"Young one, times are strange," began Olin Sami, the chief elder, "In strange times, Father Deep is lost. Mother Sky sends many different ones to find him. In her rush, not all Seer's are as patient as others."  
  
Was that all he could do? Was that the best he could explain two Seers alive at the same time, or how Toby Hamee was smarter than me? Was that the BEST that they could manage? How insulting!  
  
Foolish religion, I thought, it is no better than human voodoo. It can be used to explain anything.  
  
"You," I said, pointing at the elders, "Are an insult to our race and all free species. You have the chance to fight back, and you sit content in this hidden valley? You sicken me."  
  
Wase Mascee started to speak, but I cut him off.  
  
"I have had it with this valley. I will go to the Yeerk pool, and liberate my people on my own. Perhaps the Animorphs will aid me."  
  
"You will not live," pointed out Lumm Felma, a female elder, "No Hork-Bajir who goes alone ever returns."  
  
I flew into a rage.  
  
"Then at least I will die as a real Hork-Bajir- fighting for freedom!"  
  
I stormed out of the valley, finally happy with saying what I wanted to say for weeks.  
  
I was barely out of the camp, when a fresh Hork-Bajir looked approached me. He would have made a good warrior, I noted, he looked very strong and battle ready.  
  
He began to speak, "Skorre Fett, Do you go to fight the Yeerks?"  
  
Of course I was! Where else would I be going?  
  
"I go to fight the Yeerks, yes. If you wish to fight, you may want to come with me. Otherwise, stay here and harvest your bark."  
  
"If you are going to the Yeerk pool, then you would be fighting the wrong enemy."  
  
I was puzzled. Wrong enemy?  
  
"Are you a Seer?" I asked.  
  
"Not in the way that you are thinking, but I suppose that I am, yes."  
  
He began to morph, like Tobias and the other humans. But he morphed into a human that I had never seen before.  
  
"An Animorph! Do you wish to help me or hinder me?"  
  
He chuckled, " I wish to help you, but I am not an Animorph. Those humans that you trust, the Animorphs, are not what they seem. They are truly Yeerks, that are keeping tabs on you in a grand Yeerk experiment. Skorre, this valley is one big weapons lab."  
  
It was a lot to take in, but I believed none of it.  
  
"That is a lie! It is not possible!"  
  
He looked at me dubiously, " Oh yeah? Explain how Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak escaped the Yeerk pool in the first place. Explain how they made it to this valley. Explain how not once have Yeerk troops invaded, or no Bug Fighters ever fly into view and massacre you all. Explain it, if you can."  
  
I thought about it logically. I could not explain it.  
  
"The sad truth is that the plan to gas you, Skorre. They plan to kill you all off when you outgrow your usefulness. The time will be soon, but I hope to stop it."  
  
I was shocked at all this news, but still had to play my part as the tough warrior. "How will you stop it, human morpher?"  
  
"I am a former Animorph. My name is David Taggart. I was brought into their ranks, but escaped before I could be infested. I stole a Yeerk ship and am gathering a team of warrior's to help me save this planet and everything on it. You have been chosen to join that team."  
  
I stood in shock. I had been ignorant of these facts for so long, but now, I was being given a second chance. A chance to redeem myself.  
  
"Will you join me, Skorre?"  
  
I smiled.  
  
"Let's do it." 


	12. The Standoff

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part Twelve  
  
The Standoff  
  
  
  
The gathering was complete. I had gathered my team of Antimorphs.  
  
My right hand man, Sanders, was an invaluable asset, as well as being like a best friend. Aleks was a seasoned warrior, and an expert assassin. Ripper was a blind killing machine, how could I ask for more? LaRouche would be fighting for his new friends, and they would fight for him. He had a real family now. Skorre would be my lap dog- he thought I opposed the Yeerks, and while I did, everything else I told him was a lie.  
  
We flew to remote central Asia, somewhere along the Tajik, Uzbek and Afghan borders. It was isolated and deserted of anything but the occasional convoy of traders and farmers. I would teach my team the basics of morphing, piloting in combat, assassination, and military/covert operations.  
  
The Animorphs never had any training when they attacked the Yeerk pool for the first time. When the faced my team, the Antimorphs would be a well- oiled fighting machine.  
  
Indestructible…  
  
My men aquired several morphs each- a combat morph, a bug morph, a sea morph, an air morph and a specialty morph.  
  
All of them had Tarantula, Golden Eagle and Great White shark morphs, but they had leeway on what else they aquired.  
  
Sanders chose a Cheetah morph and an Anaconda morph. He would be my personal assassin.  
  
Aleks chose a Jaguar and a Polar Bear. We needed people with power morphs to go up against Rachel, and Aleks had the balls to use them.  
  
Ripper was naturally fast. He liked to jump into the frey, bite, then jump back out, and repeat the whole process. He chose a Cougar and a Hyena.  
  
LaRouche wanted to be medium, I guess. He chose a powerful Leopard and a Bobcat. He was a good fighter, but never liked to kill, always to maim and then capture.  
  
Skorre was a powerhouse. He was heavy combat support, and very tough to top. He actually chose three morphs-An African Elephant, an African Rhino, and a White Tiger. Very strong morphs and a very strong natural body to aid us in a jam.  
  
After about a month, we had finished with our basic training. The rest would have to be learned through experience.  
  
We approached North America in the Anubis, flying low as to not be seen by Yeerk air defence. We approached New Jersey just before dawn on a Saturday.  
  
Over the next week, we observed the Animorphs, getting intelligence and showing my team how they worked.  
  
LaRouche insisted on not killing Cassie. Fine. We wouldn't kill her. I told LaRouche that we would make her one of us, but I knew that that would never fly. She would never betray her friends, and she couldn't be trusted by me.  
  
I'd have someone else to my dirty work for me.  
  
Skorre insisted on killing Ax. He hated the Andalites for allowing his people to be turned into slaves.  
  
I would give him the honour of the kill.  
  
In addition, Ripper did something very strange and disturbing. One night, I walked in on him in the lavatory chamber, and discovered him with a knife, cutting away at his teeth.  
  
He was filing them to sharp fangs.  
  
When I asked him why he was mutilating himself, he simply replied, "The better to crunch the bones of my enemies, David. I will crush their bones and chew their soles."  
  
Okay.  
  
The Animorphs seemed to have forgotten about me, and it was just over four months since they saw me last. Jake would have told them everything, but what did it matter? The past was irreversible, and the Animorphs would pay for their naivity with their lives.  
  
We learned that the Animorphs had located a Yeerk pool entrance in an abandoned, isolated warehouse on the edge of the forest. There were dozens of Hork-Bajir stationed there, and they planned to attack the entrance and seal it off.  
  
So we watched them, and followed them to the warehouse, morphed as tarantula's in the walls, barely visable.  
  
But we could see the slaughter taking place below us. We could see how the Animorphs fought with such ferocity, leaping, biting, tearing, clawing, at the Hork-Bajir flesh. The few human-controllers were knocked unconscious by the broad side of Ax's tailblade.  
  
It was time to introduce ourselves.  
  
Playtime is over, Animorphs, I sneered.  
  
David! Jake yelled in his Tiger morph.  
  
David has ordered us to take you down, Added Aleks.  
  
I think I'll torture you for a while, Ripper jeered, his voice full of venom.  
  
David's enemy, is MY enemy! Sanders spoke up, his voice full of contempt for our foes.  
  
Cassie! Long time no see, LaRouche threw in. I looked at Cassie, and even as a wolf she showed recognition.  
  
You'll be sorry you crossed David, Skorre finished.  
  
The Animorphs looked stunned, shocked beyond words. They faced not one, but six morph capable troops.  
  
Their worst nightmare, times six.  
  
What have you done, David? Cried Rachel.  
  
I have created a team to match and out do you, Animorphs. You may say that I've created the Antimorphs, I paused, then gave the order, Demorph!  
  
With that, my men began to demorph from Tarantula to their main bodies.  
  
Within twenty seconds, we were mostly human and Hork-Bajir. The Animorphs all stood dumbfounded, looking with fear and awe at my fighting force.  
  
"Allow us to introduce ourselves," I began, " This is Sander's, my right hand man."  
  
Sanders took a step forward, his greasy black hair covering his eyes.  
  
I continued, "Aleks, my most capable soldier."  
  
Aleks spat on the ground in front of Jake.  
  
"Ripper, my most animal fighter."  
  
Ripper opened his mouth, showing off his new fangs, and let out a disturbing hiss. Like a snake.  
  
"Skorre, my bodyguard and fighting machine."  
  
Skorre flashed his blades about, making Marco cringe.  
  
"And last, but not least, Marc LaRouche, my computer specialist and co- pilot. Cassie, I believe that you two have met?"  
  
Cassie was shocked. She looked at LaRouche in the eyes.  
  
"Oh, Marc, what have they done to you? Oh God, you were such a nice boy…"  
  
But LaRouche raised an arm, cutting her off.  
  
"You betrayed me-running away, never calling or writing, acting like I never existed. And you run around with…that!" He pointed to Jake, "And my name is LaRouche to you!"  
  
Jake remained calm, throughout all this.  
  
"David, we gave you the blue box, you said you would leave. You created your own team. What do you want now?"  
  
"What I want is for vengeance, Jake! You had no right to trap me as a rat, or to betray the free Hork-Bajir to the Yeerks. I want you to die, and so does my team."  
  
"Betray the Hork-Bajir? Why the Hell would we-" Marco stammered, but Skorre cut him off  
  
"You led my people into a trap, Yeerk scum! And for that, you shall pay dearly, with your lives!"  
  
Yeerks? My Hork-Bajir friend, you are sorely mistaken. We are the last defence earth has against the Yeerks, Said Ax.  
  
"NO!" Skorre pointed a finger at the Animorphs, " You work FOR the Yeerks, leading innocent humans and Hork-Bajir into their clutches. You are the enemy, human morphers, and we will crush you, like you tried to crush David after he saw the truth!"  
  
I smiled smugly. My plan was working.  
  
I spoke, "Our demands are simple, Animorphs. Deliver yourselves to us in two nights, at the construction site. We will then take you in to custody. Failure to comply will result in the execution of a family member, and eventually your untimely deaths."  
  
Jake began to speak, but before he could make up his mind on what he was about to say, we were dashing out the doors and windows, almost totally in Bird morphs. The Yeerks were coming back to finish the battle, and three dozen Hork-Bajir and humans with automatic weapons was not a problem that we wanted to deal with at the moment.  
  
We slowly made our way back to the Anubis, my men itching for their first real mission. 


	13. The Abduction

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part Thirteen  
  
The Abduction  
  
  
  
Two days had passed since our confrontation with the Animorphs, and so far, they had not surrendered.  
  
So, they wanted a fight? Fine by me.  
  
I would engineer a plan so heinous, so evil, so malicious, that it would make their skin crawl.  
  
I would hurt the beast Rachel even further.  
  
I would make her sole, surviving sister…  
  
One of us. An Antimorph.  
  
All that I would have to do would be just to lie, like I had to all the others. She would join my ranks if I brainwashed her like Skorre.  
  
We stalked the area, getting a layout of where Sara went, and at what time. We watched the eleven year old at school, at home, as she rode her bike. Her daily routine was memorized, and we knew her every step.  
  
Unfortunately, she was never alone! She always had one or two friends with her, always in public area's, always where people could help her when she was alone. Even as she slept, Rachel was less that fifteen feet away, in the very next bedroom, ready to defend her little sister with her life.  
  
As it came to a vote, we decided that it would be best for us to strike at night, while the family of three was sleeping. Even though Rachel would be nearby, she would be unprepared for an assault in such conditions and could be disposed of.  
  
Sara would be the seventh Antimorph, and she would help us to destroy her sister's friends.  
  
No matter what.  
  
ALEKS…  
  
David gathered us in the briefing room of the Anubis. It had been over two days since our standoff with the Animorphs, and we were itching to test ourselves in battle, especially Ripper and I.  
  
Ripper was crazy, all right. He looked like a man but acted like an animal. He was always salivating, making howling noises and hissing. He had even sharpened his teeth down to the bone and loved to fight up close with blades. He wasn't either man nor animal, but some weird hybrid.  
  
I used to be called 'Blades," on the street. I liked to use knives to torture my boss's enemies, but David had given me a new way to fight, and a powerful enemy to kill. I knew David's past, how he betrayed the Animorphs. He told me, knowing that I wouldn't care. And he was right, I guess. I didn't tell anyone else. They wouldn't help David if they really knew. Maybe Sanders though, David's second in command. He looked up to David like a brother, like a hero. I don't know why, really, just that David cares for Sanders very deeply, enough to call him a protégé, or on occasion, a son.  
  
So there we were: sitting in a circle around a giant hologram image of the house that we had been watching for days. I think I knew what we were going to do, but I wasn't quite sure…  
  
"Everyone, be quiet," Said David.  
  
Ripper and Skorre stopped discussing how to kill a human with blades, and LaRouche was explaining to Sanders and I about Cassie, one of the Animorphs, and his past experiences with her.  
  
He was a fool. We were here to kill our enemies. It was our job. It was our duty. And those who do not follow duty should be eliminated.  
  
Even if they are friends and comrades.  
  
David was outlining our plan.  
  
"Now, as we all know, the Animorphs have refused our offer for a bloodless battle. And as you all know, we have been following this girl," he said as a picture of an adolescent girl, eleven years old filled the hologram, "Our objective is to abduct her from her home, tonight at approximately one in the morning. She is the sister of Rachel, and we will use her as bait for the rest of them. They will not reclaim her, and we will kill them and make Sara Berenson one of us."  
  
Skorre raised his hand, "What if Rachel resists? Should we kill her or not?"  
  
David nodded, "Kill her. But use caution. We don't know if the rest of our enemies are camped out around the house or not. If they are, it will be quite a battle and we may have to go beast on beast."  
  
Ripper was panting, "So, how's it going to play out, boss? Do we all go in?"  
  
"No. Ripper, Aleks and LaRouche go in, Sanders, Skorre and Myself stay on board the Anubis to make a quick getaway. I would send in Skorre, but we cannot have Yeerk involvement. Just the collaborators."  
  
"So, that's the plan? Kill 'em all?"  
  
David smiled. "That is the plan."  
  
A few minutes past midnight, we set course for the suburb where the kid lived. It was a nice area, not the kind of place that I'd grown up in. No gangs. No drugs. No fighting. But with David, I'd have all the heroin that I'd want, and no paying to get it. We were the ultimate gang. And there were no pigs to keep us in check.  
  
We hovered less than fifteen feet above the ground in the girls backyard, and the hanger doors opened to allow Ripper,  
  
LaRouche and I to jump out.  
  
We leaped to the ground, and I was morphing as we fell. I was going to Polar Bear, Ripper stayed as himself and same to LaRouche. Ripper held his knives and LaRouche had a Dracon Rifle.  
  
I charged the front doors to the house. Let the slaughter begin.  
  
RIPPER…  
  
Aleks rammed the door with all his might, his colossal form splintering the door in his wake. I ran quickly after him, knives held downwards in my hands.  
  
"Kill 'em all. Rip 'em up. Kill the dogs…"  
  
Aleks dragged his body upstairs, and I quickly followed, with LaRouche on my heels.  
  
"HOLY SHIT!"  
  
The father. He had seen us. Aleks threw him to the side with one swipe of his massive paw. The man was unconscious.  
  
"David!"  
  
No, not David. Aleks, Ripper, LaRouche, oh my!  
  
The bitch was going to bear fast. Aleks threw her out the window, sending her down on the grass.  
  
I looked out the broken window. She wasn't moving.  
  
"Get the kid," screamed LaRouche, "The cops will be on the way!"  
  
I'm on it! Said Aleks.  
  
He moved into the other bedroom and lifted the young girl, cowering in the corner, onto his shoulders.  
  
"Let's get out of here!" I yelled, "We got the dog! Lets blow!"  
  
Quickly, we sprinted out of the downstairs door, and to the Anubis, the landing ramp waiting for us on the way.  
  
Jus then, movement!  
  
Rachel wasn't dead, she was barrelling at me as a Grizzly bear. She swiped at me with her claw, but I jumped back.  
  
Let my sister go, Antimorphs! She yelled in though speech.  
  
  
  
Time for my first kill as an Antimorph.  
  
"Eat steel, bitch!"  
  
I leaped at her, knives out and facing her gut. She wasn't fast enough to dodge me.  
  
The blades entered her animal body.  
  
LaROUCHE  
  
Ripper was out of control, he slashed Rachel with his blades, dragging her down. I watched with horror as he bent down and bit her flesh, tearing out a chunk of bear flesh.  
  
ARGHH!  
  
"Die, bitch, DIE!"  
  
Ripper was flying around Rachel, greatly weakened from the attacks.  
  
This was wrong. Very wrong. Immoral. Ripper wasn't just insane. He was evil.  
  
"Ripper! Forget her, we need to get out of here."  
  
Ripper looked at the bear, lying down on its side.  
  
"Yeah, she's dead alright," He said as he spat out a chunk of bear flesh."  
  
He ran towards the ramp as Aleks handed Sara to Skorre and Sanders, and began to demorph.  
  
I followed my allys, briefly looking over my shoulder to see the bear corpse start to move. She was alive. None of my fellow Antimorphs saw it, but I had.  
  
I felt no animosity towards these people. I didn't want to kill them.  
  
Rachel was demorphing. I couldn't just tell the others. They would kill her while she was almost helpless.  
  
That was very wrong. Very.  
  
I climbed the ramp, and forgot what I saw. 


	14. The Showdown

1 The Antimorphs Chronicals  
  
Part Fourteen  
  
The Showdown  
  
  
  
SANDERS  
  
We brought the kid, Sara, back to the Anubis and took off, fling clear to Nevada and landing in a narrow box canyon in the Sierras. David gave Jake a call, soon after we landed.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Jake? This is Taggart. We have Sara. Surrender,she come back alive. Refuse, she still comes back, but in small pieces. Don't fuck with us, Jake. The mall. Tomorrow. Midnight. Be there."  
  
LaRouche and I were given the task of looking after Sara, feeding her and such. We all knew that David wouldn't allow her to go free. She would become one of us.  
  
In fact, we soon gave the power, by having her touch a side of the blue box. She didn't know what it was, but I doubt she cared. She was only eleven years old and she had been kidnapped. She wasn't very happy about it.  
  
Crying. Lots of crying.  
  
I tried to take care of her, and to a degree, I succeeded. I was second in command, and I would give my life for David, but I wouldn't harm this little kid.  
  
I was bringing her a grilled cheese sandwich for lunch, when she talked to me.  
  
"Lewis?"  
  
I stopped. No one ever calls me Lewis. My name is Sanders. Just Sanders.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"What is happening? Why did they take me from my daddy and my sister?" She asked in between sobs.  
  
I sighed. How could I explain to her, that her sister was evil, that the fate of the world depended on her death?  
  
"It is hard to explain, Sara. Your sister…she is our enemy. She works against your species. David, our leader, fights her and her friends. They call themselves the Animorphs. We call ourselves the Antimorphs. We…we want you to fight with us, against your sister."  
  
She didn't take it too well.  
  
"What? No! I wouldn't hurt my sister! I wouldn't ever hurt other humans!"  
  
"She isn't really a human, anymore. She is an alien servant, and her death means the salvation of the human race. David rescued all of us, Sara, my life before was very, very terrible. The rest of us…we all came from hell. Trust me, things would be better this way."  
  
She was very calm for a moment. "Do you trust him, Lewis?"  
  
"What, David?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"With my life. He is the closest thing that I have ever had to family. He's been like a brother to me. I would give my life for him."  
  
I left the young girl to her thoughts.  
  
DAVID  
  
We landed on the roof of the mall, just before midnight. With professional speed, my men unloaded our hardware- Dracon beams, RPG's, and Ripper's knives. Sanders escorted Sara down to the mall. We entered with silence, no alarms were triggered and we set up at the far end, the end by the J.C. Penny, on the top floor.  
  
We just made it in by midnight, then began to wait.  
  
"What the fuck is taking them so damn long?!" Aleks snapped at me.  
  
I looked at my watch. It was twenty minutes past midnight. They were late.  
  
"We will wait. They will be here soon. Then we gut them like fish. They wouldn't possibly…"  
  
CRASH!!!!  
  
A Gizzly Bar, Tiger, Wolf, Andalite and Gorilla had just crashed through the glass doors outside. Now the alarms went off.  
  
Give me my sister back, you son of a bitch! Screamed Rachel.  
  
Time to fix our mistake, said Jake grimly , David can't walk away this time.  
  
Rush 'em! Marco said.  
  
I picked up a megaphone we had brought along.  
  
"Don't get too cocky, Animorphs."  
  
I added, "Wipe them out. All of them."  
  
My men obliged. Ripper, Aleks, Skorre and Sanders jumped over the railing, morphing to combat forms as the fell.  
  
Within thirty seconds, they were all deadly animals, itching for a fight.  
  
Let's see how you handle these new morphs. Said Sanders, as a thirty foot long Anaconda.  
  
I hear Tobias screamed real good before he died! Jeered Aleks, speaking about a man he had never met.  
  
Skorre charged Cassie as a lumbering Rhino, knocking her off to the side.  
  
You're not as tough as I thought.  
  
Ripper finished up, You dogs aren't welcome here!  
  
Ripper was charging for Aximili as a deadly Couger. Aleks jumped onto Rachel as a Leopard, landing on her back and clawing it.  
  
I left LaRouche with Sara, he had a Dracon beam and was ready to use it.  
  
I began to morph to Andalite.  
  
Nevertheless, Jake charged me, swiping with fury at my weak torsoe.  
  
You can't beat me! I've got a better morph!  
  
I flicked my tail, tossing the Tiger downstairs.  
  
Suddenly, things just got a lot worse.  
  
"This is the police! We know that you are in there! Surrender immediately, or we will be forced to take action!"  
  
Shit, the cops!  
  
But then the shit really hit the fan. Hork-Bajir began to stream out of the side corridors. Thrity, no, forty of them. And the Visser. Esplin 9466 was here.  
  
Kill them! Kill them all! the Visser roared. Destroy the traitorous scum, and the human morphers!  
  
I looked up through the skylights above. Bug Fighters! They were strafing the cops on the ground. Visser Three wasn't too worried about secrecy anymore, he was shooting up cop cars by the dozens outside!  
  
And inside, things were getting worse. Sanders had wrapped himself around Marco, slowly squeezing the life out of him.  
  
ARGH! Get off of me! He screamed.  
  
Keep going! Don't stop till he's dead! I said.  
  
Visser three was starting to morph some huge creature, but Aximili broke away from the fight to charge him.  
  
So, the Andalite wants to challenge me? Very good, I can always use some sport!  
  
No, Yeerk. This time you will not walk away.  
  
His stalk eyes looked to me, as I ran down the stairs to the fight.  
  
And neither may I.  
  
He began to throw his mighty tail blade at the Yeerk Warlord, landing a blow right to the chest.  
  
The Visser roared with pain, and began to de-morph to Andalite.  
  
You are truly the blood of Elfangor, as the human Taggart has told me. Nevertheless, I will destroy you now.  
  
Visser Three's tail blade was going strait towards Ax's head, and missed by bear inches.  
  
This is for Tobias, Said Ax as he drove the blade right for the Visser's legs, slicing both of the front legs at the knee's.  
  
He was crippled.  
  
And this is for Elfangor.  
  
The blade decapitated Visser Three.  
  
Hork-Bajir were slashing indiscriminately at both Ani's and Anti's. Maybe a dozen of them were still alive, but it was a three sided battle.  
  
I still heard explosions outside as A Bug Fighter crashed across the industrial park to the side of the mall. The cops had shot it down!  
  
Skorre was throwing Cassie around carefully, making sure as to not kill her. LaRouche was shooting wildly at Hork-Bajir, and both Ripper and Aleks attacked Rachel, her bear body weakening.  
  
This time, I'll kill you for GOOD! Ripper yelled as he reached into Rachel's gut , tearing out her intestines.  
  
Sanders coiled around Marco, who was swatting furiously to stay alive.  
  
Jake…I cant breathe… He gasped.  
  
Then he collapsed, dead. Sanders bit the Gorilla's throat just to be sure.  
  
NO! Screamed Jake, as he charged Sanders and ripped him apart, throwing my protégé off to the side. I couldn't see the body.  
  
NO! You killed him! You killed my son!  
  
I jumped at Jake like a demon, knocking him back.  
  
I'll take care of Sanders, David! Said Aleks, leaving Ripper to finish off Rachel and heading off to the side.  
  
ALEKS  
  
I ran to the side, out of David's view. Now was my chance to take care of Sanders.  
  
Permanently.  
  
Sanders was second in command, and if he was gone, I would take his place.  
  
He was nearly dead. Just barley breathing. His Anaconda morph was torn open at the gut and his skull looked like it was crushed in.  
  
Aleks…thank God,He moaned, Please…please help me…  
  
No, Sanders. I will not help you. Pray that God has mercy, but I won't.  
  
And I killed him, with a swipe of my paw.  
  
DAVID  
  
Aleks came out of the alcove, screaming manically, He's dead, David! Sanders is dead!  
  
My mind went blank. I didn't think. I didn't see how Aximili, Cassie, and Rachel were retreating, barley alive. I didn't see how Ripper took down a Hork-Bajir. I didn't see the last few warriors running back to the Yeerk pool entrances. All I knew, was that my protégé, my friend, my second in command, my…son, was dead.  
  
David! said Skorre, We should get out of here, the Yeerks will be coming for the kill!  
  
"Yeah, I see them! They are bringing in more Bug Fighters and lots of human- controllers!" Said LaRouche.  
  
We'd better get out of here, then. Snickered Ripper.  
  
Wait…one thing more. Jake…he was limping his way out the door, moving slower than a newborn baby.  
  
Revenge…  
  
  
  
I lept at him as an Andalite, strikeing dozens of times in a row.  
  
David, he gasped, Earth needs a defence!  
  
Yes, it does. From me.  
  
And with that, I jabbed my blade into his chest, tearing out his heart.  
  
Jake collapsed, dead.  
  
David! Let's get out of here, the Yeerks are closing in! Yelled Skorre.  
  
  
  
I heard him, and we all retreated up to the Anubis, cloaked on the roof. We barely had time to grab Sara, who was petrified beyond all rational thought, when we had lifted off.  
  
"Oh, SHIT!" Screamed Aleks, human again, "We left everything down there, all our equipment, weapons…SHIT! We left the blue box!"  
  
"We'll go and get it, its not going anywhere and the Yeerks cant be allowed to have the power!" Answered LaRouche.  
  
Just then, the last fewcops, shooting with shotguns and lobbing tear gas bombs in the air, hit an uncloaked Bug Fighter in the fuselage.  
  
The bug fighter exploded, hovering just between the Anubis and the mall.  
  
The sky lit up with fire, like it was daytime.  
  
Then, the remains of the Yeerk ship crashed into the mall, engulfing it in flames.  
  
"FUCK!" Screamed Ripper.  
  
"DAMN IT!" Added Aleks.  
  
Me? I just let out a giant roar.  
  
My revenge had failed, the Animorphs had made it away. Only Marco and Jake were dead. Visser Three, too, but that didn't matter.  
  
And Sanders…Sanders was gone.  
  
I looked down at the mall, the flaming remains emitting an orange aura.  
  
"Sanders…I mean, LaRouche, get us out of here. We have to retreat. We will have our revenge!"  
  
We would take out the Animorphs…all of them would pay…Animorphs, Yeerks…even the human race.  
  
We would kill them all. 


	15. From The Author

From the Author,  
  
Wow, that was great. I had a lot of fun writing this story, and I added a lot of new stuff to the script. If anyone wants to see just how far I have come since I wrote the original, I will leave them all up, just for novelty purposes.  
  
I know I have many fans, and I wish that I could thank all of them.  
  
First and foremost, Augestine Quill, for helping me to write this story, helping develop the backstory, and listen to my obsessive and inane ideas at all hours of the day, and night. Thanks Brandon, you helped to make this all possible.  
  
Secondly, thanks to the Wandering Blue Andalite, for her wonderful reviews and positive comments. Thanks Vy, you rock!.  
  
And to my other fans, Angel, Aardrom 723, Sarah, John, Russel Bridges, Britz, and anyone else who enjoys my stories, thank you for the great reviews, honest critisism, and amazing support. You are the reason that I write. Thanks to you all.  
  
And I know I have my critics, Mostly like someone who calls himself "Smeghead". Well, Smeghead, you, too, are valuable. Critisism is always appreciated. Thank you as well.  
  
And as for the Antimorphs, they will be back within the next week or so. I'm going to chronical their further adventures, after the showdown with the Animorphs, and for an eight month period afterwards. They will have many new adventures in this new book. Secrets of the Crayak, the Yeerks and the ultimate evil will be reveiled. I have done a LOT of for shadowing in this story, and you may need to re-read it just to catch some of the deatails!  
  
And why, eight months of adventures, you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait for a while ;)  
  
-Till Next We Meet,  
  
Colin Mitchell (Elcolo9) 


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